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diff --git a/505-h/505-h.htm b/505-h/505-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2682264 --- /dev/null +++ b/505-h/505-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,36611 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + History of the Warfare Of Science With Theology in Christendom, by Andrew + Dickson White + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of History of the Warfare of Science with +Theology in Christendom, by Andrew Dickson White + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom + +Author: Andrew Dickson White + +Release Date: November 27, 2009 [EBook #505] +Last Updated: January 25, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WARFARE OF SCIENCE WITH THEOLOGY *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer, and David Widger + + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + HISTORY OF THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE WITH THEOLOGY IN CHRISTENDOM + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Andrew Dickson White + </h2> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h3> + Two Volumes Combined + </h3> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h4> + To the Memory of <br /> <br /> EZRA CORNELL <br /> <br /> I DEDICATE THIS + BOOK. + </h4> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h4> + Thoughts that great hearts once broke for, we <br /> Breathe cheaply in the + common air.—LOWELL <br /> <br /> Dicipulus est prioris posterior dies.—PUBLIUS + SYRUS <br /> <br /> Truth is the daughter of Time.—BACON <br /> <br /> + The Truth shall make you free.—ST. JOHN, viii, 32. + </h4> + + +<p><a name="link2H_INTR" id="link2H_INTR"></a></p> + + <!-- H2 anchor --> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + INTRODUCTION + </h2> + <p> + My book is ready for the printer, and as I begin this preface my eye + lights upon the crowd of Russian peasants at work on the Neva under my + windows. With pick and shovel they are letting the rays of the April sun + into the great ice barrier which binds together the modern quays and the + old granite fortress where lie the bones of the Romanoff Czars. + </p> + <p> + This barrier is already weakened; it is widely decayed, in many places + thin, and everywhere treacherous; but it is, as a whole, so broad, so + crystallized about old boulders, so imbedded in shallows, so wedged into + crannies on either shore, that it is a great danger. The waters from + thousands of swollen streamlets above are pressing behind it; wreckage and + refuse are piling up against it; every one knows that it must yield. But + there is danger that it may resist the pressure too long and break + suddenly, wrenching even the granite quays from their foundations, + bringing desolation to a vast population, and leaving, after the + subsidence of the flood, a widespread residue of slime, a fertile + breeding-bed for the germs of disease. + </p> + <p> + But the patient mujiks are doing the right thing. The barrier, exposed + more and more to the warmth of spring by the scores of channels they are + making, will break away gradually, and the river will flow on beneficent + and beautiful. + </p> + <p> + My work in this book is like that of the Russian mujik on the Neva. I + simply try to aid in letting the light of historical truth into that + decaying mass of outworn thought which attaches the modern world to + mediaeval conceptions of Christianity, and which still lingers among us—a + most serious barrier to religion and morals, and a menace to the whole + normal evolution of society. + </p> + <p> + For behind this barrier also the flood is rapidly rising—the flood + of increased knowledge and new thought; and this barrier also, though + honeycombed and in many places thin, creates a danger—danger of a + sudden breaking away, distressing and calamitous, sweeping before it not + only out worn creeds and noxious dogmas, but cherished principles and + ideals, and even wrenching out most precious religious and moral + foundations of the whole social and political fabric. + </p> + <p> + My hope is to aid—even if it be but a little—in the gradual + and healthful dissolving away of this mass of unreason, that the stream of + "religion pure and undefiled" may flow on broad and clear, a blessing to + humanity. + </p> + <p> + And now a few words regarding the evolution of this book. + </p> + <p> + It is something over a quarter of a century since I labored with Ezra + Cornell in founding the university which bears his honored name. + </p> + <p> + Our purpose was to establish in the State of New York an institution for + advanced instruction and research, in which science, pure and applied, + should have an equal place with literature; in which the study of + literature, ancient and modern, should be emancipated as much as possible + from pedantry; and which should be free from various useless trammels and + vicious methods which at that period hampered many, if not most, of the + American universities and colleges. + </p> + <p> + We had especially determined that the institution should be under the + control of no political party and of no single religious sect, and with + Mr. Cornell's approval I embodied stringent provisions to this effect in + the charter. + </p> + <p> + It had certainly never entered into the mind of either of us that in all + this we were doing anything irreligious or unchristian. Mr. Cornell was + reared a member of the Society of Friends; he had from his fortune + liberally aided every form of Christian effort which he found going on + about him, and among the permanent trustees of the public library which he + had already founded, he had named all the clergymen of the town—Catholic + and Protestant. As for myself, I had been bred a churchman, had recently + been elected a trustee of one church college, and a professor in another; + those nearest and dearest to me were devoutly religious; and, if I may be + allowed to speak of a matter so personal to my self, my most cherished + friendships were among deeply religious men and women, and my greatest + sources of enjoyment were ecclesiastical architecture, religious music, + and the more devout forms of poetry. So, far from wishing to injure + Christianity, we both hoped to promote it; but we did not confound + religion with sectarianism, and we saw in the sectarian character of + American colleges and universities as a whole, a reason for the poverty of + the advanced instruction then given in so many of them. + </p> + <p> + It required no great acuteness to see that a system of control which, in + selecting a Professor of Mathematics or Language or Rhetoric or Physics or + Chemistry, asked first and above all to what sect or even to what wing or + branch of a sect he belonged, could hardly do much to advance the moral, + religious, or intellectual development of mankind. + </p> + <p> + The reasons for the new foundation seemed to us, then, so cogent that we + expected the co-operation of all good citizens, and anticipated no + opposition from any source. + </p> + <p> + As I look back across the intervening years, I know not whether to be more + astonished or amused at our simplicity. + </p> + <p> + Opposition began at once. In the State Legislature it confronted us at + every turn, and it was soon in full blaze throughout the State—from + the good Protestant bishop who proclaimed that all professors should be in + holy orders, since to the Church alone was given the command, "Go, teach + all nations," to the zealous priest who published a charge that Goldwin + Smith—a profoundly Christian scholar—had come to Cornell in + order to inculcate the "infidelity of the Westminster Review"; and from + the eminent divine who went from city to city, denouncing the "atheistic + and pantheistic tendencies" of the proposed education, to the perfervid + minister who informed a denominational synod that Agassiz, the last great + opponent of Darwin, and a devout theist, was "preaching Darwinism and + atheism" in the new institution. + </p> + <p> + As the struggle deepened, as hostile resolutions were introduced into + various ecclesiastical bodies, as honored clergymen solemnly warned their + flocks first against the "atheism," then against the "infidelity," and + finally against the "indifferentism" of the university, as devoted pastors + endeavoured to dissuade young men from matriculation, I took the + defensive, and, in answer to various attacks from pulpits and religious + newspapers, attempted to allay the fears of the public. "Sweet + reasonableness" was fully tried. There was established and endowed in the + university perhaps the most effective Christian pulpit, and one of the + most vigorous branches of the Christian Association, then in the United + States; but all this did nothing to ward off the attack. The clause in the + charter of the university forbidding it to give predominance to the + doctrines of any sect, and above all the fact that much prominence was + given to instruction in various branches of science, seemed to prevent all + compromise, and it soon became clear that to stand on the defensive only + made matters worse. Then it was that there was borne in upon me a sense of + the real difficulty—the antagonism between the theological and + scientific view of the universe and of education in relation to it; + therefore it was that, having been invited to deliver a lecture in the + great hall of the Cooper Institute at New York, I took as my subject The + Battlefields of Science, maintaining this thesis which follows: + </p> + <p> + In all modern history, interference with science in the supposed interest + of religion, no matter how conscientious such interference may have been, + has resulted in the direst evils both to religion and science, and + invariably; and, on the other hand, all untrammeled scientific + investigation, no matter how dangerous to religion some of its stages may + have seemed for the time to be, has invariably resulted in the highest + good both of religion and science. + </p> + <p> + The lecture was next day published in the New York Tribune at the request + of Horace Greeley, its editor, who was also one of the Cornell University + trustees. As a result of this widespread publication and of sundry attacks + which it elicited, I was asked to maintain my thesis before various + university associations and literary clubs; and I shall always remember + with gratitude that among those who stood by me and presented me on the + lecture platform with words of approval and cheer was my revered + instructor, the Rev. Dr. Theodore Dwight Woolsey, at that time President + of Yale College. + </p> + <p> + My lecture grew—first into a couple of magazine articles, and then + into a little book called The Warfare of Science, for which, when + republished in England, Prof. John Tyndall wrote a preface. + </p> + <p> + Sundry translations of this little book were published, but the most + curious thing in its history is the fact that a very friendly introduction + to the Swedish translation was written by a Lutheran bishop. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile Prof. John W. Draper published his book on The Conflict between + Science and Religion, a work of great ability, which, as I then thought, + ended the matter, so far as my giving it further attention was concerned. + </p> + <p> + But two things led me to keep on developing my own work in this field: + First, I had become deeply interested in it, and could not refrain from + directing my observation and study to it; secondly, much as I admired + Draper's treatment of the questions involved, his point of view and mode + of looking at history were different from mine. + </p> + <p> + He regarded the struggle as one between Science and Religion. I believed + then, and am convinced now, that it was a struggle between Science and + Dogmatic Theology. + </p> + <p> + More and more I saw that it was the conflict between two epochs in the + evolution of human thought—the theological and the scientific. + </p> + <p> + So I kept on, and from time to time published New Chapters in the Warfare + of Science as magazine articles in The Popular Science Monthly. This was + done under many difficulties. For twenty years, as President of Cornell + University and Professor of History in that institution, I was immersed in + the work of its early development. Besides this, I could not hold myself + entirely aloof from public affairs, and was three times sent by the + Government of the United States to do public duty abroad: first as a + commissioner to Santo Domingo, in 1870; afterward as minister to Germany, + in 1879; finally, as minister to Russia, in 1892; and was also called upon + by the State of New York to do considerable labor in connection with + international exhibitions at Philadelphia and at Paris. I was also obliged + from time to time to throw off by travel the effects of overwork. + </p> + <p> + The variety of residence and occupation arising from these causes may + perhaps explain some peculiarities in this book which might otherwise + puzzle my reader. + </p> + <p> + While these journeyings have enabled me to collect materials over a very + wide range—in the New World, from Quebec to Santo Domingo and from + Boston to Mexico, San Francisco, and Seattle, and in the Old World from + Trondhjem to Cairo and from St. Petersburg to Palermo—they have + often obliged me to write under circumstances not very favorable: + sometimes on an Atlantic steamer, sometimes on a Nile boat, and not only + in my own library at Cornell, but in those of Berlin, Helsingfors, Munich, + Florence, and the British Museum. This fact will explain to the benevolent + reader not only the citation of different editions of the same authority + in different chapters, but some iterations which in the steady quiet of my + own library would not have been made. + </p> + <p> + It has been my constant endeavour to write for the general reader, + avoiding scholastic and technical terms as much as possible and stating + the truth simply as it presents itself to me. + </p> + <p> + That errors of omission and commission will be found here and there is + probable—nay, certain; but the substance of the book will, I + believe, be found fully true. I am encouraged in this belief by the fact + that, of the three bitter attacks which this work in its earlier form has + already encountered, one was purely declamatory, objurgatory, and + hortatory, and the others based upon ignorance of facts easily pointed + out. + </p> + <p> + And here I must express my thanks to those who have aided me. First and + above all to my former student and dear friend, Prof. George Lincoln Burr, + of Cornell University, to whose contributions, suggestions, criticisms, + and cautions I am most deeply indebted; also to my friends U. G. + Weatherly, formerly Travelling Fellow of Cornell, and now Assistant + Professor in the University of Indiana,—Prof. and Mrs. Earl Barnes + and Prof. William H. Hudson, of Stanford University,—and Prof. E. P + Evans, formerly of the University of Michigan, but now of Munich, for + extensive aid in researches upon the lines I have indicated to them, but + which I could never have prosecuted without their co-operation. In + libraries at home and abroad they have all worked for me most effectively, + and I am deeply grateful to them. + </p> + <p> + This book is presented as a sort of Festschrift—a tribute to Cornell + University as it enters the second quarter-century of its existence, and + probably my last tribute. + </p> + <p> + The ideas for which so bitter a struggle was made at its foundation have + triumphed. Its faculty, numbering over one hundred and, fifty; its + students, numbering but little short of two thousand; its noble buildings + and equipment; the munificent gifts, now amounting to millions of dollars, + which it has received from public-spirited men and women; the evidences of + public confidence on all sides; and, above all, the adoption of its + cardinal principles and main features by various institutions of learning + in other States, show this abundantly. But there has been a triumph far + greater and wider. Everywhere among the leading modern nations the same + general tendency is seen. During the quarter-century just past the control + of public instruction, not only in America but in the leading nations of + Europe, has passed more and more from the clergy to the laity. Not only + are the presidents of the larger universities in the United States, with + but one or two exceptions, laymen, but the same thing is seen in the old + European strongholds of metaphysical theology. At my first visit to Oxford + and Cambridge, forty years ago, they were entirely under ecclesiastical + control. Now, all this is changed. An eminent member of the present + British Government has recently said, "A candidate for high university + position is handicapped by holy orders." I refer to this with not the + slightest feeling of hostility toward the clergy, for I have none; among + them are many of my dearest friends; no one honours their proper work more + than I; but the above fact is simply noted as proving the continuance of + that evolution which I have endeavoured to describe in this series of + monographs—an evolution, indeed, in which the warfare of Theology + against Science has been one of the most active and powerful agents. My + belief is that in the field left to them—their proper field—the + clergy will more and more, as they cease to struggle against scientific + methods and conclusions, do work even nobler and more beautiful than + anything they have heretofore done. And this is saying much. My conviction + is that Science, though it has evidently conquered Dogmatic Theology based + on biblical texts and ancient modes of thought, will go hand in hand with + Religion; and that, although theological control will continue to + diminish, Religion, as seen in the recognition of "a Power in the + universe, not ourselves, which makes for righteousness," and in the love + of God and of our neighbor, will steadily grow stronger and stronger, not + only in the American institutions of learning but in the world at large. + Thus may the declaration of Micah as to the requirements of Jehovah, the + definition by St. James of "pure religion and undefiled," and, above all, + the precepts and ideals of the blessed Founder of Christianity himself, be + brought to bear more and more effectively on mankind. + </p> + <p> + I close this preface some days after its first lines were written. The sun + of spring has done its work on the Neva; the great river flows tranquilly + on, a blessing and a joy; the mujiks are forgotten. A. D. W. + </p> + <p> + LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, ST. PETERSBURG, + </p> + <p> + April 14,1894. + </p> + <p> + P.S.—Owing to a wish to give more thorough revision to some parts of + my work, it has been withheld from the press until the present date. A. D. + W. + </p> + <p> + CORNELL UNIVERSITY, ITHACA, N.Y., + </p> + <p> + August 15, 1895. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_INTR"> INTRODUCTION </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_TOC"> DETAILED CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0001"> <b>CHAPTER I. FROM CREATION TO EVOLUTION.</b> + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> I. THE VISIBLE UNIVERSE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> II. THEOLOGICAL TEACHINGS REGARDING THE + ANIMALS AND MAN. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> III. THEOLOGICAL AND SCIENTIFIC THEORIES, OF + AN EVOLUTION IN ANIMATED </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> IV. THE FINAL EFFORT OF THEOLOGY. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0002"> <b>CHAPTER II. GEOGRAPHY.</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> I. THE FORM OF THE EARTH. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> II. THE DELINEATION OF THE EARTH. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> III. THE INHABITANTS OF THE EARTH. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> IV. THE SIZE OF THE EARTH. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> V. THE CHARACTER OF THE EARTH'S SURFACE. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0003"> <b>CHAPTER III. ASTRONOMY.</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0014"> I. THE OLD SACRED THEORY OF THE UNIVERSE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0015"> II. THE HELIOCENTRIC THEORY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0016"> III. THE WAR UPON GALILEO. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0017"> IV. VICTORY OF THE CHURCH OVER GALILEO. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0018"> V. RESULTS OF THE VICTORY OVER GALILEO. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0019"> VI. THE RETREAT OF THE CHURCH AFTER ITS + VICTORY OVER GALILEO. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0004"> <b>CHAPTER IV. FROM "SIGNS AND WONDERS" TO LAW + IN THE HEAVENS.</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0021"> I. THE THEOLOGICAL VIEW. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkcrush"> II. THEOLOGICAL EFFORTS TO CRUSH THE SCIENTIFIC + VIEW. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0022"> III. THE INVASION OF SCEPTICISM. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0023"> IV. THEOLOGICAL EFFORTS AT COMPROMISE.—THE + FINAL VICTORY OF SCIENCE. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0005"> <b>CHAPTER V. FROM GENESIS TO GEOLOGY.</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0025"> I. GROWTH OF THEOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0026"> II. EFFORTS TO SUPPRESS THE SCIENTIFIC VIEW. + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0027"> III. THE FIRST GREAT EFFORT AT COMPROMISE, + BASED ON THE FLOOD OF NOAH. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0028"> IV. FINAL EFFORTS AT COMPROMISE.—THE + VICTORY OF SCIENCE COMPLETE. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0006"> <b>CHAPTER VI. THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN EGYPTOLOGY, + AND ASSYRIOLOGY.</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0030"> I. THE SACRED CHRONOLOGY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0031"> II. THE NEW CHRONOLOGY. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0007"> <b>CHAPTER VII. THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN AND + PREHISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0033"> I. THE THUNDER-STONES. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0034"> II. THE FLINT WEAPONS AND IMPLEMENTS. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0008"> <b>CHAPTER VIII. THE "FALL OF MAN" AND + ANTHROPOLOGY</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0009"> <b>CHAPTER IX. THE "FALL OF MAN" AND ETHNOLOGY.</b> + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0010"> <b>CHAPTER X. THE "FALL OF MAN" AND HISTORY.</b> + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0011"> <b>CHAPTER XI. FROM "THE PRINCE OF THE POWER OF + THE AIR" TO METEOROLOGY</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0039"> I. GROWTH OF A THEOLOGICAL THEORY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0040"> II. DIABOLIC AGENCY IN STORMS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0041"> III. THE AGENCY OF WITCHES. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0042"> IV. FRANKLIN'S LIGHTNING-ROD. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0012"> <b>CHAPTER XII. FROM MAGIC TO CHEMISTRY AND + PHYSICS.</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0013"> <b>CHAPTER XIII. FROM MIRACLES TO MEDICINE.</b> + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0045"> I. THE EARLY AND SACRED THEORIES OF DISEASE. + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0046"> II. GROWTH OF LEGENDS OF HEALING. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0047"> III. THE MEDIAEVAL MIRACLES OF HEALING CHECK + MEDICAL SCIENCE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0048"> IV. THE ATTRIBUTION OF DISEASE TO SATANIC + INFLUENCE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0049"> V. THEOLOGICAL OPPOSITION TO ANATOMICAL + STUDIES. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0050"> VI. NEW BEGINNINGS OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0051"> VII. THEOLOGICAL DISCOURAGEMENT OF MEDICINE. + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0052"> VIII. FETICH CURES UNDER PROTESTANTISM.—THE + ROYAL TOUCH. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0053"> IX. THE SCIENTIFIC STRUGGLE FOR ANATOMY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0054"> X. THEOLOGICAL OPPOSITION TO INOCULATION, + VACCINATION, AND THE USE OF </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0055"> XI. FINAL BREAKING AWAY OF THE THEOLOGICAL + THEORY IN MEDICINE. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0014"> <b>CHAPTER XIV. FROM FETICH TO HYGIENE.</b> + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0057"> I. THE THEOLOGICAL VIEW OF EPIDEMICS AND + SANITATION. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0058"> II. GRADUAL DECAY OF THEOLOGICAL VIEWS + REGARDING SANITATION. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0059"> III. THE TRIUMPH OF SANITARY SCIENCE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0060"> IV. THE RELATION OF SANITARY SCIENCE TO + RELIGION. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0015"> <b>CHAPTER XV. FROM "DEMONIACAL POSSESSION" TO + INSANITY.</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0062"> I. THEOLOGICAL IDEAS OF LUNACY AND ITS + TREATMENT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0063"> II. BEGINNINGS OF A HEALTHFUL SCEPTICISM. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0064"> III. THE FINAL STRUGGLE AND VICTORY OF + SCIENCE.—PINEL AND TUKE. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0016"> <b>CHAPTER XVI. FROM DIABOLISM TO HYSTERIA.</b> + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0066"> I. THE EPIDEMICS OF "POSSESSION." </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0067"> II. BEGINNINGS OF HELPFUL SCEPTICISM. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0068"> III. THEOLOGICAL "RESTATEMENTS."—FINAL + TRIUMPH OF THE SCIENTIFIC VIEW </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0017"> <b>CHAPTER XVII. FROM BABEL TO COMPARATIVE + PHILOLOGY.</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0070"> I. THE SACRED THEORY IN ITS FIRST FORM. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0071"> II. THE SACRED THEORY OF LANGUAGE IN ITS + SECOND FORM. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0072"> III. BREAKING DOWN OF THE THEOLOGICAL VIEW. + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0073"> IV. TRIUMPH OF THE NEW SCIENCE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0074"> V. SUMMARY. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0018"> <b>CHAPTER XVIII. FROM THE DEAD SEA LEGENDS TO + COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0076"> I. THE GROWTH OF EXPLANATORY TRANSFORMATION + MYTHS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0077"> II. MEDIAEVAL GROWTH OF THE DEAD SEA LEGENDS. + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0078"> III. POST-REFORMATION CULMINATION OF THE DEAD + SEA LEGENDS.—BEGINNINGS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0079"> IV. THEOLOGICAL EFFORTS AT COMPROMISE.—TRIUMPH + OF THE SCIENTIFIC VIEW. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0019"> <b>CHAPTER XIX. FROM LEVITICUS TO POLITICAL + ECONOMY</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0081"> I. ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF HOSTILITY TO LOANS + AT INTEREST. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0082"> II. RETREAT OF THE CHURCH, PROTESTANT AND + CATHOLIC. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0020"> <b>CHAPTER XX. FROM THE DIVINE ORACLES TO THE + HIGHER CRITICISM.</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0084"> I. THE OLDER INTERPRETATION. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0085"> II. BEGINNINGS OF SCIENTIFIC INTERPRETATION. + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0086"> III. THE CONTINUED GROWTH OF SCIENTIFIC + INTERPRETATION. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0087"> IV. THE CLOSING STRUGGLE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0088"> V. VICTORY OF THE SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY + METHODS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0089"> VI. RECONSTRUCTIVE FORCE OF SCIENTIFIC + CRITICISM. </a> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_TOC" id="link2H_TOC"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + DETAILED CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + CHAPTER I. + + FROM CREATION TO EVOLUTION. + I. The Visible Universe. + Ancient and medieval views regarding the manner of creation + Regarding the matter of creation + Regarding the time of creation + Regarding the date of creation + Regarding the Creator + Regarding light and darkness + Rise of the conception of an evolution: among the Chaldeans, the + Hebrews, the Greeks, the Romans + Its survival through the Middle Ages, despite the disfavour of + the Church + Its development in modern times.—The nebular hypothesis and its + struggle with theology + The idea of evolution at last victorious + Our sacred books themselves an illustration of its truth + The true reconciliation of Science and Theology + + II. Theological Teachings regarding the Animals and Man. + Ancient and medieval representations of the creation of man + Literal acceptance of the book of Genesis by the Christian + fathers + By the Reformers + By modern theologians, Catholic and Protestant + Theological reasoning as to the divisions of the animal kingdom + The Physiologus, the Bestiaries, the Exempila + Beginnings of sceptical observation + Development of a scientific method in the study of Nature + Breaking down of the theological theory of creation + + III. Theological and Scientific Theories of an Evolution in + Animated Nature. + Ideas of evolution among the ancients + In the early Church + In the medieval Church + Development of these ideas from the sixteenth to the eighteenth + centuries + The work of De Maillet + Of Linneus + Of Buffon + Contributions to the theory of evolution at the close of the + eighteenth century + The work of Treviranus and Lamarck + Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire and Cuvier + Development of the theory up to the middle of the nineteenth + century + The contributions of Darwin and Wallace + The opposition of Agassiz + + IV. The Final Effort of Theology. + Attacks on Darwin and his theories in England + In America + Formation of sacro-scientific organizations to combat the theory + of evolution + The attack in France + In Germany + Conversion of Lyell to the theory of evolution + The attack of Darwin's Descent of Man + Difference between this and the former attack + Hostility to Darwinism in America + Change in the tone of the controversy.—Attempts at compromise + Dying-out of opposition to evolution + Last outbursts of theological hostility + Final victory of evolution +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + CHAPTER II. + + GEOGRAPHY + + I. The Form of the Earth. + Primitive conception of the earth as flat + In Chaldea and Egypt + In Persia + Among the Hebrews + Evolution, among the Greeks, of the idea of its sphericity + Opposition of the early Church + Evolution of a sacred theory, drawn from the Bible + Its completion by Cosmas Indicopleustes + Its influence on Christian thought + Survival of the idea of the earth's sphericity—its acceptance by + Isidore and Bede + Its struggle and final victory + + II. The Delineation of the Earth. + Belief of every ancient people that its own central place was the + centre of the earth + Hebrew conviction that the earth's centre was at Jerusalem + Acceptance of this view by Christianity + Influence of other Hebrew conceptions—Gog and Magog, the "four + winds," the waters "on an heap" + + III. The Inhabitants of the Earth. + The idea of antipodes + Its opposition by the Christian Church—Gregory Nazianzen, + Lactantius, Basil, Ambrose, Augustine, Procopius of Gaza, Cosmas, + Isidore + Virgil of Salzburg's assertion of it in the eighth century + Its revival by William of Conches and Albert the Great in the + thirteenth + Surrender of it by Nicolas d'Oresme + Fate of Peter of Abano and Cecco d' Ascoli + Timidity of Pierre d'Ailly and Tostatus + Theological hindrance of Columbus + Pope Alexander VI's demarcation line + Cautious conservatism of Gregory Reysch + Magellan and the victory of science +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + IV. The Size of the Earth. + Scientific attempts at measuring the earth + The sacred solution of the problem + Fortunate influence of the blunder upon Columbus +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + V. The Character of the Earth's Surface. + Servetus and the charge of denying the fertility of Judea + Contrast between the theological and the religious spirit in + their effects on science +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + CHAPTER III. + + ASTRONOMY. + + I. The Old Sacred Theory of the Universe. + The early Church's conviction of the uselessness of astronomy + The growth of a sacred theory—Origen, the Gnostics, Philastrius, + Cosmas, Isidore + The geocentric, or Ptolemaic, theory, its origin, and its + acceptance by the Christian world + Development of the new sacred system of astronomy—the + pseudo-Dionysius, Peter Lombard, Thomas Aquinas + Its popularization by Dante + Its details + Its persistence to modern times + + II. The Heliocentric Theory. + Its rise among the Greeks—Pythagoras, Philolaus, Aristarchus + Its suppression by the charge of blasphemy + Its loss from sight for six hundred Years, then for a thousand + Its revival by Nicholas de Cusa and Nicholas Copernicus + Its toleration as a hypothesis + Its prohibition as soon as Galileo teaches it as a truth + Consequent timidity of scholars—Acosta, Apian + Protestantism not less zealous in opposition than + Catholicism—Luther Melanchthon, Calvin, Turretin + This opposition especially persistent in England—Hutchinson, + Pike, Horne, Horsley, Forbes, Owen, Wesley + Resulting interferences with freedom of teaching + Giordano Bruno's boldness and his fate + The truth demonstrated by the telescope of Galileo + + III. The War upon Galileo. + Concentration of the war on this new champion + The first attack + Fresh attacks—Elci, Busaeus, Caccini, Lorini, Bellarmin + Use of epithets + Attempts to entrap Galileo + His summons before the Inquisition at Rome + The injunction to silence, and the condemnation of the theory of + the earth's motion + The work of Copernicus placed on the Index + Galileo's seclusion + Renewed attacks upon Galileo—Inchofer, Fromundus + + IV. Victory of the Church over Galileo + Publication of his Dialogo + Hostility of Pope Urban VIII + Galileo's second trial by the Inquisition + His abjuration + Later persecution of him + Measures to complete the destruction of the Copernican theory + Persecution of Galileo's memory + Protestant hostility to the new astronomy and its champions + + V. Results of the Victory over Galileo. + Rejoicings of churchmen over the victory + The silencing of Descartes + Persecution of Campanella and of Kepler + Persistence and victory of science + Dilemma of the theologians + Vain attempts to postpone the surrender + + VI. The Retreat of the Church after its Victory over Galileo. + The easy path for the Protestant theologians + The difficulties of the older Church.—The papal infallibility + fully committed against the Copernican theory + Attempts at evasion—first plea: that Galileo was condemned not + for affirming the earth's motion, but for supporting it from + Scripture + Its easy refutation + Second plea: that he was condemned not for heresy, but for + contumacy + Folly of this assertion + Third plea: that it was all a quarrel between Aristotelian + professors and those favouring the experimental method + Fourth plea: that the condemnation of Galileo was "provisory" + Fifth plea: that he was no more a victim of Catholics than of + Protestants + Efforts to blacken Galileo's character + Efforts to suppress the documents of his trial + Their fruitlessness + Sixth plea: that the popes as popes had never condemned his + theory + Its confutation from their own mouths + Abandonment of the contention by honest Catholics + Two efforts at compromise—Newman, De Bonald + Effect of all this on thinking men + The fault not in Catholicism more than in Protestantism—not in + religion, but in theology +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + CHAPTER IV. + + FROM "SIGNS AND WONDERS" TO LAW IN THE HEAVENS. + + I. The Theological View. + Early beliefs as to comets, meteors, and eclipses + Their inheritance by Jews and Christians + The belief regarding comets especially harmful as a source of + superstitious terror + Its transmission through the Middle Ages + Its culmination under Pope Calixtus III + Beginnings of scepticism—Copernicus, Paracelsus, Scaliger + Firmness of theologians, Catholic and Protestant, in its support + + II. Theological Efforts to crush the Scientific View. + The effort through the universities.—The effort through the + pulpits + Heerbrand at Tubingen and Dieterich at Marburg + Maestlin at Heidelberg + Buttner, Vossius, Torreblanca, Fromundus + Father Augustin de Angelis at Rome + Reinzer at Linz + Celichius at Magdeburg + Conrad Dieterich's sermon at Ulm + Erni and others in Switzerland + Comet doggerel + Echoes from New England—Danforth, Morton, Increase Mather + + III. The Invasion of Scepticism. + Rationalism of Cotton Mather, and its cause + Blaise de Vigenere + Erastus + Bekker, Lubienitzky, Pierre Petit + Bayle + Fontenelle + The scientific movement beneath all this + + IV. Theological Efforts at Compromise.—The Final Victory of + Science. + The admission that some comets are supralunar + Difference between scientific and theological reasoning + Development of the reasoning of Tycho and Kepler—Cassini, Hevel, + Doerfel, Bernouilli, Newton + Completion of the victory by Halley and Clairaut + Survivals of the superstition—Joseph de Maistre, Forster Arago's + statistics + The theories of Whiston and Burnet, and their influence in + Germany + The superstition ended in America by the lectures of Winthrop + Helpful influence of John Wesley + Effects of the victory +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + CHAPTER V. + + FROM GENESIS TO GEOLOGY. + + I. Growth of Theological Explanations + Germs of geological truth among the Greeks and Romans + Attitude of the Church toward science + Geological theories of the early theologians + Attitude of the schoolmen + Contributions of the Arabian schools + Theories of the earlier Protestants + Influence of the revival of learning + + II. Efforts to Suppress the Scientific View. + Revival of scientific methods + Buffon and the Sorbonne + Beringer's treatise on fossils + Protestant opposition to the new geology—-the works of Burnet, + Whiston, Wesley, Clark, + Watson, Arnold, Cockburn, and others + + III. The First Great Effort of Compromise, based on the Flood of + Noah. + The theory that fossils were produced by the Deluge + Its acceptance by both Catholics and Protestants—Luther, Calmet + Burnet, Whiston, Woodward, Mazurier, Torrubia, Increase Mather + Scheuchzer + Voltaire's theory of fossils + Vain efforts of enlightened churchmen in behalf of the scientific + view + Steady progress of science—the work of Cuvier and Brongniart + Granvile Penn's opposition + The defection of Buckland and Lyell to the scientific side + Surrender of the theologians + Remnants of the old belief + Death-blow given to the traditional theory of the Deluge by the + discovery of the Chaldean accounts + Results of the theological opposition to science + + IV. Final Efforts at Compromise—The Victory of Science + complete. + Efforts of Carl von Raumer, Wagner, and others + The new testimony of the caves and beds of drift as to the + antiquity of man + Gosse's effort to save the literal interpretation of Genesis + Efforts of Continental theologians + Gladstone's attempt at a compromise + Its demolition by Huxley + By Canon Driver + Dean Stanley on the reconciliation of Science and Scripture +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + CHAPTER VI. + + THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN, EGYPTOLOGY, AND ASSYRIOLOGY. + + I. The Sacred Chronology. + Two fields in which Science has gained a definite victory over + Theology + Opinions of the Church fathers on the antiquity of man + The chronology of Isidore + Of Bede + Of the medieval Jewish scholars + The views of the Reformers on the antiquity of man + Of the Roman Church + Of Archbishop Usher + Influence of Egyptology on the belief in man's antiquity + La Peyrere's theory of the Pre-Adamites + Opposition in England to the new chronology + + II. The New Chronology. + Influence of the new science of Egyptology on biblical chronology + + Manetho's history of Egypt and the new chronology derived from it + Evidence of the antiquity of man furnished by the monuments of + Egypt + By her art + By her science + By other elements of civilization + By the remains found in the bed of the Nile + Evidence furnished by the study of Assyriology +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + CHAPTER VII. + + THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN AND PREHISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY. + I. The Thunder-stones. + Early beliefs regarding "thunder-stones" + Theories of Mercati and Tollius regarding them + Their identification with the implements of prehistoric man + Remains of man found in caverns + Unfavourable influence on scientific activity of the political + conditions of the early part of the nineteenth century + Change effected by the French Revolution of to {??} + Rallying of the reactionary clerical influence against science + + II. The Flint Weapons and Implements. + Boucher de Perthes's contributions to the knowledge of + prehistoric man + His conclusions confirmed by Lyell and others + Cave explorations of Lartet and Christy + Evidence of man's existence furnished by rude carvings + Cave explorations in the British Islands + Evidence of man's existence in the Drift period + In the early Quaternary and in the Tertiary periods +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + CHAPTER VIII. + + THE "FALL OF MAN" AND ANTHROPOLOGY. + + The two antagonistic views regarding the life of man on the + earth + The theory of "the Fall" among ancient peoples + Inheritance of this view by the Christian Church + Appearance among the Greeks and Romans of the theory of a rise of + man + Its disappearance during the Middle Ages + Its development since the seventeenth century + The first blow at the doctrine of "the Fall" comes from geology + Influence of anthropology on the belief in this doctrine + The finding of human skulls in Quaternary deposits + Their significance + Results obtained from the comparative study of the remains of + human handiwork + Discovery of human remains in shell-heaps on the shores of the + Baltic Sea + In peat-beds + The lake-dwellers + Indications of the upward direction of man's development + Mr. Southall's attack on the theory of man's antiquity + An answer to it + Discovery of prehistoric human remains in Egypt + Hamard's attack on the new scientific conclusions + The survival of prehistoric implements in religious rites + Strength of the argument against the theory of "the Fall of Man" +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + CHAPTER IX. + + THE "FALL OF MAN" AND ETHNOLOGY. + + The beginnings of the science of Comparative Ethnology + Its testimony to the upward tendency of man from low beginning + Theological efforts to break its force—De Maistre and DeBonald + Whately's attempt + The attempt of the Duke of Argyll + Evidence of man's upward tendency derived from Comparative + Philology + From Comparative Literature and Folklore + From Comparative Ethnography + From Biology +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + CHAPTER X. + + THE "FALL OF MAN" AND HISTORY. + + Proof of progress given by the history of art + Proofs from general history + Development of civilization even under unfavourable circumstances + Advancement even through catastrophes and the decay of + civilizations + Progress not confined to man's material condition + Theological struggle against the new scientific view + Persecution of Prof. Winchell + Of Dr. Woodrow + Other interferences with freedom of teaching + The great harm thus done to religion + Rise of a better spirit + The service rendered to religion by Anthropology +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + CHAPTER XI. + + FROM "THE PRINCE OF THE POWER OF THE AIR" TO METEOROLOGY. + + I. Growth of a Theological Theory. + The beliefs of classical antiquity regarding storms, thunder, and + lightning + Development of a sacred science of meteorology by the fathers of + the Church + Theories of Cosmas Indicopleustes + Of Isidore + Of Seville + Of Bede + Of Rabanus Maurus + Rational views of Honorius of Autun + Orthodox theories of John of San Geminiano + Attempt of Albert the Great to reconcile the speculations of + Aristotle with the theological views + The monkish encyclopedists + Theories regarding the rainbow and the causes of storms + Meteorological phenomena attributed to the Almighty + + II. Diabolical Agency in Storms. + Meteorological phenomena attributed to the devil—"the prince of + the power of the air" + Propagation of this belief by the medieval theologians + Its transmission to both Catholics and Protestants—Eck, Luther + The great work of Delrio + Guacci's Compendium + The employment of prayer against "the powers of the air" + Of exorcisms + Of fetiches and processions + Of consecrated church bells + + III. The Agency of Witches. + The fearful results of the witch superstition + Its growth out of the doctrine of evil agency in atmospheric + phenomena + Archbishop Agobard's futile attempt to dispel it + Its sanction by the popes + Its support by confessions extracted by torture + Part taken in the persecution by Dominicans and Jesuits + Opponents of the witch theory—Pomponatius, Paracelsus, Agrippa + of Nettesheim + Jean Bodin's defence of the superstition + Fate of Cornelius Loos + Of Dietrich Flade + Efforts of Spee to stem the persecution + His posthumous influence + Upholders of the orthodox view—Bishop Binsfeld, Remigius + Vain protests of Wier + Persecution of Bekker for opposing the popular belief + Effect of the Reformation in deepening the superstition + The persecution in Great Britain and America + Development of a scientific view of the heavens + Final efforts to revive the old belief + + IV. Franklin's Lightning-Rod. + Franklin's experiments with the kite + Their effect on the old belief + Efforts at compromise between the scientific and theological + theories + Successful use of the lightning-rod + Religious scruples against it in America + In England + In Austria + In Italy + Victory of the scientific theory + This victory exemplified in the case of the church of the + monastery of Lerins + In the case of Dr. Moorhouse + In the case of the Missouri droughts +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + CHAPTER XII. + + FROM MAGIC TO CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS. + + I. The Supremacy of Magic. + Primitive tendency to belief in magic + The Greek conception of natural laws + Influence of Plato and Aristotle on the growth of science + Effect of the establishment of Christianity on the development of + the physical sciences + The revival of thought in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries + Albert the Great + Vincent of Beauvais + Thomas Aquinas + Roger Bacon's beginning of the experimental method brought to + nought + The belief that science is futile gives place to the belief that + it is dangerous + The two kinds of magic + Rarity of persecution for magic before the Christian era + The Christian theory of devils + Constantine's laws against magic + Increasing terror of magic and witchcraft + Papal enactments against them + Persistence of the belief in magic + Its effect on the development of science + Roger Bacon + Opposition of secular rulers to science + John Baptist Porta + The opposition to scientific societies in Italy + In England + The effort to turn all thought from science to religion + The development of mystic theology + Its harmful influence on science + Mixture of theological with scientific speculation + This shown in the case of Melanchthon + In that of Francis Bacon + Theological theory of gases + Growth of a scientific theory + Basil Valentine and his contributions to chemistry + Triumph of the scientific theory + + II. The Triumph of Chemistry and Physics. + New epoch in chemistry begun by Boyle + Attitude of the mob toward science + Effect on science of the reaction following the French + Revolution: {?} + Development of chemistry since the middle of the nineteenth + century + Development of physics + Modern opposition to science in Catholic countries + Attack of scientific education in France + In England + In Prussia + Revolt against the subordination of education to science + Effect of the International Exhibition of ii {?} at London + Of the endowment of State colleges in America by the Morrill + Act of 1862 + The results to religion +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + CHAPTER XIII. + + FROM MIRACLES TO MEDICINE. + + I. THE EARLY AND SACRED THEORIES OF DISEASE. + Naturalness of the idea of supernatural intervention in causing + and curing disease + Prevalence of this idea in ancient civilizations + Beginnings of a scientific theory of medicine + The twofold influence of Christianity on the healing art + + II. GROWTH OF LEGENDS OF HEALING.—THE LIFE OF XAVIER AS A + TYPICAL EXAMPLE. + Growth of legends of miracles about the lives of great + benefactors of humanity + Sketch of Xavier's career + Absence of miraculous accounts in his writings and those of his + contemporaries + Direct evidence that Xavier wrought no miracles + Growth of legends of miracles as shown in the early biographies + of him + As shown in the canonization proceedings + Naturalness of these legends + + III. THE MEDIAEVAL MIRACLES OF HEALING CHECK MEDICAL SCIENCE. + Character of the testimony regarding miracles + Connection of mediaeval with pagan miracles + Their basis of fact + Various kinds of miraculous cures + Atmosphere of supernaturalism thrown about all cures + Influence of this atmosphere on medical science + + IV. THE ATTRIBUTION OF DISEASE TO SATANIC INFLUENCE.—"PASTORAL + MEDICINE" CHECKS SCIENTIFIC EFFORT. + Theological theory as to the cause of disease + Influence of self-interest on "pastoral medicine" + Development of fetichism at Cologne and elsewhere + Other developments of fetich cure + + V. THEOLOGICAL OPPOSITION TO ANATOMICAL STUDIES. + Medieval belief in the unlawfulness of meddling with the bodies + of the dead + Dissection objected to on the ground that "the Church abhors the + shedding of blood" + The decree of Boniface VIII and its results + + VI. NEW BEGINNINGS OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. + Galen + Scanty development of medical science in the Church + Among Jews and Mohammedans + Promotion of medical science by various Christian laymen of the + Middle Ages + By rare men of science + By various ecclesiastics + + VII. THEOLOGICAL DISCOURAGEMENT OF MEDICINE. + Opposition to seeking cure from disease by natural means + Requirement of ecclesiastical advice before undertaking medical + treatment + Charge of magic and Mohammedanism against men of science + Effect of ecclesiastical opposition to medicine + The doctrine of signatures + The doctrine of exorcism + Theological opposition to surgery + Development of miracle and fetich cures + Fashion in pious cures + Medicinal properties of sacred places + Theological argument in favour of miraculous cures + Prejudice against Jewish physicians + + VIII. FETICH CURES UNDER PROTESTANTISM.—THE ROYAL TOUCH. + Luther's theory of disease + The royal touch + Cures wrought by Charles II + By James II + By William III + By Queen Anne + By Louis XIV + Universal acceptance of these miracles + + IX. THE SCIENTIFIC STRUGGLE FOR ANATOMY. + Occasional encouragement of medical science in the Middle Ages + New impulse given by the revival of learning and the age of + discovery + Paracelsus and Mundinus + Vesalius, the founder of the modern science of anatomy.—His + career and fate + + X. THEOLOGICAL OPPOSITION TO INOCULATION, VACCINATION, AND THE + USE OF ANAESTHETICS. + Theological opposition to inoculation in Europe + In America + Theological opposition to vaccination + Recent hostility to vaccination in England + In Canada, during the smallpox epidemic + Theological opposition to the use of cocaine + To the use of quinine + Theological opposition to the use of anesthetics + + XI. FINAL BREAKING AWAY OF THE THEOLOGICAL THEORY IN MEDICINE. + Changes incorporated in the American Book of Common Prayer + Effect on the theological view of the growing knowledge of the + relation between imagination and medicine + Effect of the discoveries in hypnotism + In bacteriology + Relation between ascertained truth and the "ages of faith" +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + CHAPTER XIV. + + FROM FETICH TO HYGIENE. + + I. THE THEOLOGICAL VIEW OF EPIDEMICS AND SANITATION. + The recurrence of great pestilences + Their early ascription to the wrath or malice of unseen powers + Their real cause want of hygienic precaution + Theological apotheosis of filth + Sanction given to the sacred theory of pestilence by Pope Gregory + the Great + Modes of propitiating the higher powers + Modes of thwarting the powers of evil + Persecution of the Jews as Satan's emissaries + Persecution of witches as Satan's emissaries + Case of the Untori at Milan + New developments of fetichism.—The blood of St. Januarius at + Naples + Appearance of better methods in Italy.—In Spain + + II. GRADUAL DECAY OF THEOLOGICAL VIEWS REGARDING SANITATION. + Comparative freedom of England from persecutions for + plague-bringing, in spite of her wretched sanitary condition + Aid sought mainly through church services + Effects of the great fire in London + The jail fever + The work of John Howard + Plagues in the American colonies + In France.—The great plague at Marseilles + Persistence of the old methods in Austria + In Scotland + + III. THE TRIUMPH OF SANITARY SCIENCE. + Difficulty of reconciling the theological theory of pestilences + with accumulating facts + Curious approaches to a right theory + The law governing the relation of theology to disease + Recent victories of hygiene in all countries + In England.—-Chadwick and his fellows + In France + + IV. THE RELATION OF SANITARY SCIENCE TO RELIGION. + The process of sanitary science not at the cost of religion + Illustration from the policy of Napoleon III in France + Effect of proper sanitation on epidemics in the United States + Change in the attitude of the Church toward the cause and cure of + pestilence +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + CHAPTER XV. + + FROM "DEMONIACAL POSSESSION" TO INSANITY. + + I. THEOLOGICAL IDEAS OF LUNACY AND ITS TREATMENT. + The struggle for the scientific treatment of the insane + The primitive ascription of insanity to evil spirits + Better Greek and Roman theories—madness a disease + The Christian Church accepts the demoniacal theory of insanity + Yet for a time uses mild methods for the insane + Growth of the practice of punishing the indwelling demon + Two sources whence better things might have been hoped.—The + reasons of their futility + The growth of exorcism + Use of whipping and torture + The part of art and literature in making vivid to the common mind + the idea of diabolic activity + The effects of religious processions as a cure for mental disease + Exorcism of animals possessed of demons + Belief in the transformation of human beings into animals + The doctrine of demoniacal possession in the Reformed Church + + II. BEGINNINGS OF A HEALTHFUL SCEPTICISM. + Rivalry between Catholics and Protestants in the casting out of + devils + Increased belief in witchcraft during the period following the + Reformation + Increase of insanity during the witch persecutions II {?} + Attitude of physicians toward witchcraft I + Religious hallucinations of the insane I + Theories as to the modes of diabolic entrance into the possessed + Influence of monastic life on the development of insanity + Protests against the theological view of insanity—Wier, + Montaigue Bekker + Last struggles of the old superstition + + III. THE FINAL STRUGGLE AND VICTORY OF SCIENCE.—PINEL AND TUKE. + Influence of French philosophy on the belief in demoniacal + possession + Reactionary influence of John Wesley + Progress of scientific ideas in Prussia + In Austria + In America + In South Germany + General indifference toward the sufferings of madmen + The beginnings of a more humane treatment + Jean Baptiste Pinel + Improvement in the treatment of the insane in England.—William + Tuke + The place of Pinel and Tuke in history +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + CHAPTER XVI. + + FROM DIABOLISM TO HYSTERIA. + + I. THE EPIDEMICS OF "POSSESSION." + Survival of the belief in diabolic activity as the cause of such + epidemics + Epidemics of hysteria in classical times + In the Middle Ages + The dancing mania + Inability of science during the fifteenth century to cope with + such diseases + Cases of possession brought within the scope of medical research + during the sixteenth century + Dying-out of this form of mental disease in northern Europe + In Italy + Epidemics of hysteria in the convents + The case of Martha Brossier + Revival in France of belief in diabolic influence + The Ursulines of Loudun and Urbain Grandier + Possession among the Huguenots + In New England.—The Salem witch persecution + At Paris.—Alleged miracles at the grave of Archdeacon Paris + In Germany.—Case of Maria Renata Sanger + More recent outbreaks + + II. BEGINNINGS OF HELPFUL SCEPTICISM. + Outbreaks of hysteria in factories and hospitals + In places of religious excitement + The case at Morzine + Similar cases among Protestants and in Africa + + III. THEOLOGICAL "RESTATEMENTS."—FINAL TRIUMPH OF THE + SCIENTIFIC VIEW AND METHODS. + Successful dealings of medical science with mental diseases + Attempts to give a scientific turn to the theory of diabolic + agency in disease + Last great demonstration of the old belief in England + Final triumph of science in the latter half of the present + century + Last echoes of the old belief +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + CHAPTER XVII. + + FROM BABEL TO COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY. + + I. THE SACRED THEORY IN ITS FIRST FORM. + Difference of the history of Comparative Philology from that of + other sciences as regards the attitude of theologians + Curiosity of early man regarding the origin, the primitive form, + and the diversity of language + The Hebrew answer to these questions + The legend of the Tower of Babel + The real reason for the building of towers by the Chaldeans and + the causes of their ruin + Other legends of a confusion of tongues + Influence upon Christendom of the Hebrew legends + Lucretius's theory of the origin of language + The teachings of the Church fathers on this subject + The controversy as to the divine origin of the Hebrew vowel + points + Attitude of the reformers toward this question + Of Catholic scholars.—Marini Capellus and his adversaries + The treatise of Danzius + + II. THE SACRED THEORY OF LANGUAGE IN ITS SECOND FORM. + Theological theory that Hebrew was the primitive tongue, divinely + revealed + This theory supported by all Christian scholars until the + beginning of the eighteenth century + Dissent of Prideaux and Cotton Mather + Apparent strength of the sacred theory of language + + III. BREAKING DOWN OF THE THEOLOGICAL VIEW. + Reason for the Church's ready acceptance of the conclusions of + comparative philology + Beginnings of a scientific theory of language + Hottinger + Leibnitz + The collections of Catharine the Great, of Hervas, and of Adelung + Chaotic period in philology between Leibnitz and the beginning of + the study of Sanskrit + Illustration from the successive editions of the Encyclopaedia + Britannica + + IV. TRIUMPH OF THE NEW SCIENCE. + Effect of the discovery of Sanskrit on the old theory + Attempts to discredit the new learning + General acceptance of the new theory + Destruction of the belief that all created things were first + named by Adam + Of the belief in the divine origin of letters + Attempts in England to support the old theory of language + Progress of philological science in France + In Germany + In Great Britain + Recent absurd attempts to prove Hebrew the primitive tongue + + V. SUMMARY. + Gradual disappearance of the old theories regarding the origin of + speech and writing + Full acceptance of the new theories by all Christian scholars + The result to religion, and to the Bible +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + CHAPTER XVIII. + FROM THE DEAD SEA LEGENDS TO COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY, + + I. THE GROWTH OF EXPLANATORY TRANSFORMATION MYTHS. + Growth of myths to account for remarkable appearances in + Nature—mountains, rocks, curiously marked stones, fossils, + products of volcanic action + Myths of the transformation of living beings into natural objects + Development of the science of Comparative Mythology + + II. MEDIAEVAL GROWTH OF THE DEAD SEA LEGENDS. + Description of the Dead Sea + Impression made by its peculiar features on the early dwellers in + Palestine + Reasons for selecting the Dead Sea myths for study + Naturalness of the growth of legend regarding the salt region of + Usdum + Universal belief in these legends + Concurrent testimony of early and mediaeval writers, Jewish and + Christian, respecting the existence of Lot's wife as a "pillar of + salt," and of the other wonders of the Dead Sea + Discrepancies in the various accounts and theological + explanations of them + Theological arguments respecting the statue of Lot's wife + Growth of the legend in the sixteenth century + + III. POST-REFORMATION CULMINATION OF THE DEAD SEA + LEGENDS.—BEGINNINGS OF A HEALTHFUL SCEPTICISM. + Popularization of the older legends at the Reformation + Growth of new myths among scholars + Signs of scepticism among travellers near the end of the + sixteenth century + Effort of Quaresmio to check this tendency + Of Eugene Roger + Of Wedelius + Influence of these teachings + Renewed scepticism—the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries + Efforts of Briemle and Masius in support of the old myths + Their influence + The travels of Mariti and of Volney + Influence of scientific thought on the Dead Sea legends during + the eighteenth century + Reactionary efforts of Chateaubriand + Investigations of the naturalist Seetzen + Of Dr. Robinson + The expedition of Lieutenant Lynch + The investigations of De Saulcy + Of the Duc de Luynes.—Lartet's report + Summary of the investigations of the nineteenth + century.—Ritter's verdict +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + IV. THEOLOGICAL EFFORTS AT COMPROMISE.—TRIUMPH OF THE + SCIENTIFIC VIEW. + Attempts to reconcile scientific facts with the Dead Sea legends + Van de Velde's investigations of the Dead Sea region + Canon Tristram's + Mgr. Mislin's protests against the growing rationalism + The work of Schaff and Osborn + Acceptance of the scientific view by leaders in the Church + Dr. Geikie's ascription of the myths to the Arabs + Mgr. Haussmann de Wandelburg and his rejection of the scientific + view + Service of theologians to religion in accepting the conclusions + of silence in this field +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + CHAPTER XIX. + + FROM LEVITICUS TO POLITICAL ECONOMY + + I. ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF HOSTILITY TO LOANS AT INTEREST. + Universal belief in the sin of loaning money at interest + The taking of interest among the Greeks and Romans + Opposition of leaders of thought, especially Aristotle + Condemnation of the practice by the Old and New Testaments + By the Church fathers + In ecclesiastical and secular legislation + Exception sometimes made in behalf of the Jews + Hostility of the pulpit + Of the canon law + Evil results of the prohibition of loans at interest + Efforts to induce the Church to change her position + Theological evasions of the rule + Attitude of the Reformers toward the taking of interest + Struggle in England for recognition of the right to accept + interest + Invention of a distinction between usury and interest + + II. RETREAT OF THE CHURCH, PROTESTANT AND CATHOLIC. + Sir Robert Filmer's attack on the old doctrine + Retreat of the Protestant Church in Holland + In Germany and America + Difficulties in the way of compromise in the Catholic Church + Failure of such attempts in France + Theoretical condemnation of usury in Italy + Disregard of all restrictions in practice + Attempts of Escobar and Liguori to reconcile the taking of + interest with the teachings of the Church + Montesquieu's attack on the old theory + Encyclical of Benedict XIV permitting the taking of interest + Similar decision of the Inquisition at Rome + Final retreat of the Catholic Church + Curious dealings of theology with public economy in other fields +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + CHAPTER XX. + + FROM THE DIVINE ORACLES TO THE HIGHER CRITICISM. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + I. THE OLDER INTERPRETATION. + Character of the great sacred + books of the world + General laws governing the development and influence of sacred + literature.—The law of its origin + Legends concerning the Septuagint + The law of wills and causes + The law of inerrancy + Hostility to the revision of King James's translation of the + Bible + The law of unity + Working of these laws seen in the great rabbinical schools + The law of allegorical interpretation + Philo + Judaeus + Justin Martyr and Clement of Alexandria + Occult significance of numbers + Origen + Hilary of Poitiers and Jerome + Augustine + Gregory the Great + Vain attempts to check the flood of allegorical interpretations + Bede.—Savonarola + Methods of modern criticism for the first time employed by + Lorenzo Valla + Erasmus + Influence of the Reformation on the belief in the infallibility + of the sacred books.—Luther and Melanchthon + Development of scholasticism in the Reformed Church + Catholic belief in the inspiration of the Vulgate + Opposition in Russia to the revision of the Slavonic Scriptures + Sir Isaac Newton as a commentator + Scriptural interpretation at the beginning of the eighteenth + century + + II. BEGINNINGS OF SCIENTIFIC INTERPRETATION. + Theological beliefs regarding the Pentateuch + The book of Genesis + Doubt thrown on the sacred theory by Aben Ezra + By Carlstadt and Maes + Influence of the discovery that the Isidorian + Decretals were forgeries + That the writings ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite were + serious + Hobbes and La Peyrere + Spinoza + Progress of biblical criticism in France.—Richard Simon + LeClerc + Bishop Lowth + Astruc + Eichhorn's application of the "higher criticism" to biblical + research + Isenbiehl + Herder + Alexander Geddes + Opposition to the higher criticism in Germany + Hupfeld + Vatke and Reuss + Kuenen + Wellhausen + + III. THE CONTINUED GROWTH OF SCIENTIFIC INTERPRETATION. + Progress of the higher criticism in Germany and Holland + Opposition to it in England + At the University of Oxford + Pusey + Bentley + Wolf + Niebuhr and Arnold + Milman + Thirlwall and Grote + The publication of Essays and Reviews, and the storm raised by + book + + IV. THE CLOSING STRUGGLE. + Colenso's work on the Pentateuch + The persecution of him + Bishop Wilberforce's part in it + Dean Stanley's + Bishop Thirlwall's + Results of Colenso's work + Sanday's Bampton Lectures + Keble College and Lux + Mundi + Progress of biblical criticism among the dissenters + In France.—Renan + In the Roman Catholic Church + The encyclical letter of Pope Leo XIII + In America.—Theodore Parker + Apparent strength of the old theory of inspiration + Real strength of the new movement + + V. VICTORY OF THE SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY METHODS. + Confirmation of the conclusions of the higher criticism by + Assyriology and Egyptology + Light thrown upon Hebrew religion by the translation of the + sacred books of the East + The influence of Persian thought.—The work of the Rev. Dr. Mills + The influence of Indian thought.—Light thrown by the study of + Brahmanism and Buddhism + The work of Fathers Huc and Gabet + Discovery that Buddha himself had been canonized as a Christian + saint + Similarity between the ideas and legends of Buddhism and those of + Christianity + The application of the higher criticism to the New Testament + The English "Revised Version" of Studies on the formation of the + canon of Scripture + Recognition of the laws governing its development + Change in the spirit of the controversy over the higher criticism + + VI. RECONSTRUCTIVE FORCE OF SCIENTIFIC CRITICISM. + Development of a scientific atmosphere during the last three + centuries + Action of modern science in reconstruction of religious truth + + Change wrought by it in the conception of a sacred literature + + Of the Divine Power.—Of man.—-Of the world at large + Of our Bible +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + CHAPTER I. FROM CREATION TO EVOLUTION. + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I. THE VISIBLE UNIVERSE. + </h2> + <p> + Among those masses of cathedral sculpture which preserve so much of + medieval theology, one frequently recurring group is noteworthy for its + presentment of a time-honoured doctrine regarding the origin of the + universe. + </p> + <p> + The Almighty, in human form, sits benignly, making the sun, moon, and + stars, and hanging them from the solid firmament which supports the + "heaven above" and overarches the "earth beneath." + </p> + <p> + The furrows of thought on the Creator's brow show that in this work he is + obliged to contrive; the knotted muscles upon his arms show that he is + obliged to toil; naturally, then, the sculptors and painters of the + medieval and early modern period frequently represented him as the writers + whose conceptions they embodied had done—as, on the seventh day, + weary after thought and toil, enjoying well-earned repose and the plaudits + of the hosts of heaven. + </p> + <p> + In these thought-fossils of the cathedrals, and in other revelations of + the same idea through sculpture, painting, glass-staining, mosaic work, + and engraving, during the Middle Ages and the two centuries following, + culminated a belief which had been developed through thousands of years, + and which has determined the world's thought until our own time. + </p> + <p> + Its beginnings lie far back in human history; we find them among the early + records of nearly all the great civilizations, and they hold a most + prominent place in the various sacred books of the world. In nearly all of + them is revealed the conception of a Creator of whom man is an imperfect + image, and who literally and directly created the visible universe with + his hands and fingers. + </p> + <p> + Among these theories, of especial interest to us are those which + controlled theological thought in Chaldea. The Assyrian inscriptions which + have been recently recovered and given to the English-speaking peoples by + Layard, George Smith, Sayce, and others, show that in the ancient + religions of Chaldea and Babylonia there was elaborated a narrative of the + creation which, in its most important features, must have been the source + of that in our own sacred books. It has now become perfectly clear that + from the same sources which inspired the accounts of the creation of the + universe among the Chaldeo-Babylonian, the Assyrian, the Phoenician, and + other ancient civilizations came the ideas which hold so prominent a place + in the sacred books of the Hebrews. In the two accounts imperfectly fused + together in Genesis, and also in the account of which we have indications + in the book of Job and in the Proverbs, there, is presented, often with + the greatest sublimity, the same early conception of the Creator and of + the creation—the conception, so natural in the childhood of + civilization, of a Creator who is an enlarged human being working + literally with his own hands, and of a creation which is "the work of his + fingers." To supplement this view there was developed the belief in this + Creator as one who, having + </p> + <p> + ... "from his ample palm Launched forth the rolling planets into space." + </p> + <p> + sits on high, enthroned "upon the circle of the heavens," perpetually + controlling and directing them. + </p> + <p> + From this idea of creation was evolved in time a somewhat nobler view. + Ancient thinkers, and especially, as is now found, in Egypt, suggested + that the main agency in creation was not the hands and fingers of the + Creator, but his VOICE. Hence was mingled with the earlier, cruder belief + regarding the origin of the earth and heavenly bodies by the Almighty the + more impressive idea that "he spake and they were made"—that they + were brought into existence by his WORD.(1) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (1) Among the many mediaeval representations of the creation of the +universe, I especially recall from personal observation those sculptured +above the portals of the cathedrals of Freiburg and Upsala, the +paintings on the walls of the Campo Santo at Pisa, and most striking of +all, the mosaics of the Cathedral of Monreale and those in the Capella +Palatina at Palermo. Among peculiarities showing the simplicity of the +earlier conception the representation of the response of the Almighty +on the seventh day is very striking. He is shown as seated in almost the +exact attitude of the "Weary Mercury" of classic sculpture—bent, and +with a very marked expression of fatigue upon his countenance and in the +whole disposition of his body. +</pre> + <p> + The Monreale mosaics are pictured in the great work of Gravina, and in the + Pisa frescoes in Didron's Iconographie, Paris, 1843, p. 598. For an exact + statement of the resemblances which have settled the question among the + most eminent scholars in favour of the derivation of the Hebrew cosmogony + from that of Assyria, see Jensen, Die Kosmologie der Babylonier, + Strassburg, 1890, pp. 304,306; also Franz Lukas, Die Grundbegriffe in den + Kosmographien der alten Volker, Leipsic, 1893, pp. 35-46; also George + Smith's Chaldean Genesis, especially the German translation with additions + by Delitzsch, Leipsic, 1876, and Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das + Alte Testament, Giessen, 1883, pp. 1-54, etc. See also Renan, Histoire du + peuple d'Israel, vol. i, chap i, L'antique influence babylonienne. For + Egyptian views regarding creation, and especially for the transition from + the idea of creation by the hands and fingers of the Creator to creation + by his VOICE and his "word," see Maspero and Sayce, The Dawn of + Civilization, pp. 145-146. + </p> + <p> + Among the early fathers of the Church this general view of creation became + fundamental; they impressed upon Christendom more and more strongly the + belief that the universe was created in a perfectly literal sense by the + hands or voice of God. Here and there sundry theologians of larger mind + attempted to give a more spiritual view regarding some parts of the + creative work, and of these were St. Gregory of Nyssa and St. Augustine. + Ready as they were to accept the literal text of Scripture, they revolted + against the conception of an actual creation of the universe by the hands + and fingers of a Supreme Being, and in this they were followed by Bede and + a few others; but the more material conceptions prevailed, and we find + these taking shape not only in the sculptures and mosaics and stained + glass of cathedrals, and in the illuminations of missals and psalters, but + later, at the close of the Middle Ages, in the pictured Bibles and in + general literature. + </p> + <p> + Into the Anglo-Saxon mind this ancient material conception of the creation + was riveted by two poets whose works appealed especially to the deeper + religious feelings. In the seventh century Caedmon paraphrased the account + given in Genesis, bringing out this material conception in the most + literal form; and a thousand years later Milton developed out of the + various statements in the Old Testament, mingled with a theology regarding + "the creative Word" which had been drawn from the New, his description of + the creation by the second person in the Trinity, than which nothing could + be more literal and material: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "He took the golden compasses, prepared + In God's eternal store, to circumscribe + This universe and all created things. + One foot he centred, and the other turned + Round through the vast profundity obscure, + And said, 'Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds: + This be thy just circumference, O world!'"(2) +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (2) For Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine, and the general subject of the +development of an evolution theory among the Greeks, see the excellent +work by Dr. Osborn, From the Greeks to Darwin, pp.33 and following; for +Caedmon, see any edition—I have used Bouterwek's, Gutersloh, 1854; for +Milton, see Paradise Lost, book vii, lines 225-231. +</pre> + <p> + So much for the orthodox view of the MANNER of creation. + </p> + <p> + The next point developed in this theologic evolution had reference to the + MATTER of which the universe was made, and it was decided by an + overwhelming majority that no material substance existed before the + creation of the material universe—that "God created everything out + of nothing." Some venturesome thinkers, basing their reasoning upon the + first verses of Genesis, hinted at a different view—namely, that the + mass, "without form and void," existed before the universe; but this + doctrine was soon swept out of sight. The vast majority of the fathers + were explicit on this point. Tertullian especially was very severe against + those who took any other view than that generally accepted as orthodox: he + declared that, if there had been any pre-existing matter out of which the + world was formed, Scripture would have mentioned it; that by not + mentioning it God has given us a clear proof that there was no such thing; + and, after a manner not unknown in other theological controversies, he + threatens Hermogenes, who takes the opposite view, with the woe which + impends on all who add to or take away from the written word. + </p> + <p> + St. Augustine, who showed signs of a belief in a pre-existence of matter, + made his peace with the prevailing belief by the simple reasoning that, + "although the world has been made of some material, that very same + material must have been made out of nothing." + </p> + <p> + In the wake of these great men the universal Church steadily followed. The + Fourth Lateran Council declared that God created everything out of + nothing; and at the present hour the vast majority of the faithful—whether + Catholic or Protestant—are taught the same doctrine; on this point + the syllabus of Pius IX and the Westminster Catechism fully agree.(3) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (3) For Tertullian, see Tertullian against Hermogenes, chaps. xx and +xxii; for St. Augustine regarding "creation from nothing," see the De +Genesi contra Manichaeos, lib, i, cap. vi; for St. Ambrose, see the +Hexameron, lib, i, cap iv; for the decree of the Fourth Lateran Council, +and the view received in the Church to-day, see the article Creation in +Addis and Arnold's Catholic Dictionary. +</pre> + <p> + Having thus disposed of the manner and matter of creation, the next + subject taken up by theologians was the TIME required for the great work. + </p> + <p> + Here came a difficulty. The first of the two accounts given in Genesis + extended the creative operation through six days, each of an evening and a + morning, with much explicit detail regarding the progress made in each. + But the second account spoke of "THE DAY" in which "the Lord God made the + earth and the heavens." The explicitness of the first account and its + naturalness to the minds of the great mass of early theologians gave it at + first a decided advantage; but Jewish thinkers, like Philo, and Christian + thinkers, like Origen, forming higher conceptions of the Creator and his + work, were not content with this, and by them was launched upon the + troubled sea of Christian theology the idea that the creation was + instantaneous, this idea being strengthened not only by the second of the + Genesis legends, but by the great text, "He spake, and it was done; he + commanded, and it stood fast"—or, as it appears in the Vulgate and + in most translations, "He spake, and they were made; he commanded, and + they were created." + </p> + <p> + As a result, it began to be held that the safe and proper course was to + believe literally BOTH statements; that in some mysterious manner God + created the universe in six days, and yet brought it all into existence in + a moment. In spite of the outcries of sundry great theologians, like + Ephrem Syrus, that the universe was created in exactly six days of + twenty-four hours each, this compromise was promoted by St. Athanasius and + St. Basil in the East, and by St. Augustine and St. Hilary in the West. + </p> + <p> + Serious difficulties were found in reconciling these two views, which to + the natural mind seem absolutely contradictory; but by ingenious + manipulation of texts, by dexterous play upon phrases, and by the abundant + use of metaphysics to dissolve away facts, a reconciliation was effected, + and men came at least to believe that they believed in a creation of the + universe instantaneous and at the same time extended through six days.(4) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (4) For Origen, see his Contra Celsum, cap xxxvi, xxxvii; also his +De Principibus, cap. v; for St. Augustine, see his De Genesi conta +Manichaeos and De Genesi ad Litteram, passim; for Athanasius, see his +Discourses against the Arians, ii, 48,49. +</pre> + <p> + Some of the efforts to reconcile these two accounts were so fruitful as to + deserve especial record. The fathers, Eastern and Western, developed out + of the double account in Genesis, and the indications in the Psalms, the + Proverbs, and the book of Job, a vast mass of sacred science bearing upon + this point. As regards the whole work of creation, stress was laid upon + certain occult powers in numerals. Philo Judaeus, while believing in an + instantaneous creation, had also declared that the world was created in + six days because "of all numbers six is the most productive"; he had + explained the creation of the heavenly bodies on the fourth day by "the + harmony of the number four"; of the animals on the fifth day by the five + senses; of man on the sixth day by the same virtues in the number six + which had caused it to be set as a limit to the creative work; and, + greatest of all, the rest on the seventh day by the vast mass of + mysterious virtues in the number seven. + </p> + <p> + St. Jerome held that the reason why God did not pronounce the work of the + second day "good" is to be found in the fact that there is something + essentially evil in the number two, and this was echoed centuries + afterward, afar off in Britain, by Bede. + </p> + <p> + St. Augustine brought this view to bear upon the Church in the following + statement: "There are three classes of numbers—the more than + perfect, the perfect, and the less than perfect, according as the sum of + them is greater than, equal to, or less than the original number. Six is + the first perfect number: wherefore we must not say that six is a perfect + number because God finished all his works in six days, but that God + finished all his works in six days because six is a perfect number." + </p> + <p> + Reasoning of this sort echoed along through the mediaeval Church until a + year after the discovery of America, when the Nuremberg Chronicle + re-echoed it as follows: "The creation of things is explained by the + number six, the parts of which, one, two, and three, assume the form of a + triangle." + </p> + <p> + This view of the creation of the universe as instantaneous and also as in + six days, each made up of an evening and a morning, became virtually + universal. Peter Lombard and Hugo of St. Victor, authorities of vast + weight, gave it their sanction in the twelfth century, and impressed it + for ages upon the mind of the Church. + </p> + <p> + Both these lines of speculation—as to the creation of everything out + of nothing, and the reconciling of the instantaneous creation of the + universe with its creation in six days—were still further developed + by other great thinkers of the Middle Ages. + </p> + <p> + St. Hilary of Poictiers reconciled the two conceptions as follows: "For, + although according to Moses there is an appearance of regular order in the + fixing of the firmament, the laying bare of the dry land, the gathering + together of the waters, the formation of the heavenly bodies, and the + arising of living things from land and water, yet the creation of the + heavens, earth, and other elements is seen to be the work of a single + moment." + </p> + <p> + St. Thomas Aquinas drew from St. Augustine a subtle distinction which for + ages eased the difficulties in the case: he taught in effect that God + created the substance of things in a moment, but gave to the work of + separating, shaping, and adorning this creation, six days.(5) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (5) For Philo Judaeus, see his Creation of the World, chap. iii; for +St. Augustine on the powers of numbers in creation, see his De Genesi ad +Litteram iv, chap. ii; for Peter Lombard, see the Sententiae, lib. ii, +dist. xv, 5; and for Hugo of St. Victor, see De Sacrementis, lib i, pars +i; also, Annotat, Elucidat in Pentateuchum, cap. v, vi, vii; for St. +Hilary, see De Trinitate, lib. xii; for St. Thomas Aquinas, see his +Summa Theologica, quest lxxxiv, arts. i and ii; the passage in the +Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493, is in fol. iii; for Vousset, see his Discours +sur l'Histoire Universelle; for the sacredness of the number seven among +the Babylonians, see especially Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das +Alte Testament, pp. 21,22; also George Smith et al.; for general ideas +on the occult powers of various numbers, especially the number seven, +and the influence of these ideas on theology and science, see my chapter +on astronomy. As to medieaval ideas on the same subject, see Detzel, +Christliche Ikonographie, Frieburg, 1894, pp. 44 and following. +</pre> + <p> + The early reformers accepted and developed the same view, and Luther + especially showed himself equal to the occasion. With his usual boldness + he declared, first, that Moses "spoke properly and plainly, and neither + allegorically nor figuratively," and that therefore "the world with all + creatures was created in six days." And he then goes on to show how, by a + great miracle, the whole creation was also instantaneous. + </p> + <p> + Melanchthon also insisted that the universe was created out of nothing and + in a mysterious way, both in an instant and in six days, citing the text: + "He spake, and they were made." + </p> + <p> + Calvin opposed the idea of an instantaneous creation, and laid especial + stress on the creation in six days: having called attention to the fact + that the biblical chronology shows the world to be not quite six thousand + years old and that it is now near its end, he says that "creation was + extended through six days that it might not be tedious for us to occupy + the whole of life in the consideration of it." + </p> + <p> + Peter Martyr clinched the matter by declaring: "So important is it to + comprehend the work of creation that we see the creed of the Church take + this as its starting point. Were this article taken away there would be no + original sin, the promise of Christ would become void, and all the vital + force of our religion would be destroyed." The Westminster divines in + drawing up their Confession of Faith specially laid it down as necessary + to believe that all things visible and invisible were created not only out + of nothing but in exactly six days. + </p> + <p> + Nor were the Roman divines less strenuous than the Protestant reformers + regarding the necessity of holding closely to the so-called Mosaic account + of creation. As late as the middle of the eighteenth century, when Buffon + attempted to state simple geological truths, the theological faculty of + the Sorbonne forced him to make and to publish a most ignominious + recantation which ended with these words: "I abandon everything in my book + respecting the formation of the earth, and generally all which may be + contrary to the narrative of Moses." + </p> + <p> + Theologians, having thus settled the manner of the creation, the matter + used in it, and the time required for it, now exerted themselves to fix + its DATE. + </p> + <p> + The long series of efforts by the greatest minds in the Church, from + Eusebius to Archbishop Usher, to settle this point are presented in + another chapter. Suffice it here that the general conclusion arrived at by + an overwhelming majority of the most competent students of the biblical + accounts was that the date of creation was, in round numbers, four + thousand years before our era; and in the seventeenth century, in his + great work, Dr. John Lightfoot, Vice-Chancellor of the University of + Cambridge, and one of the most eminent Hebrew scholars of his time, + declared, as the result of his most profound and exhaustive study of the + Scriptures, that "heaven and earth, centre and circumference, were created + all together, in the same instant, and clouds full of water," and that + "this work took place and man was created by the Trinity on October 23, + 4004 B. C., at nine o'clock in the morning." + </p> + <p> + Here was, indeed, a triumph of Lactantius's method, the result of hundreds + of years of biblical study and theological thought since Bede in the + eighth century, and Vincent of Beauvais in the thirteenth, had declared + that creation must have taken place in the spring. Yet, alas! within two + centuries after Lightfoot's great biblical demonstration as to the exact + hour of creation, it was discovered that at that hour an exceedingly + cultivated people, enjoying all the fruits of a highly developed + civilization, had long been swarming in the great cities of Egypt, and + that other nations hardly less advanced had at that time reached a high + development in Asia.(6) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (6) For Luther, see his Commentary on Genesis, 1545, introduction, +and his comments on chap. i, verse 12; the quotations from Luther's +commentary are taken mainly from the translation by Henry Cole, D.D., +Edinburgh, 1858; for Melanchthon, see Loci Theologici, in Melanchthon, +Opera, ed. Bretschneider, vol. xxi, pp. 269, 270, also pp. 637, 638—in +quoting the text (Ps. xxiii, 9) I have used, as does Melanchthon +himself, the form of the Vulgate; for the citations from Calvin, see his +Commentary on Genesis (Opera omnia, Amsterdam, 1671, tom. i, cap. ii, p. +8); also in the Institutes, Allen's translation, London, 1838, vol. +i, chap. xv, pp. 126,127; for the Peter Martyr, see his Commentary +on Genesis, cited by Zockler, vol. i, p. 690; for articles in the +Westminster Confession of Faith, see chap. iv; for Buffon's recantation, +see Lyell, Principles of Geology, chap iii, p. 57. For Lightfoot's +declaration, see his works, edited by Pitman, London, 1822. +</pre> + <p> + But, strange as it may seem, even after theologians had thus settled the + manner of creation, the matter employed in it, the time required for it, + and the exact date of it, there remained virtually unsettled the first and + greatest question of all; and this was nothing less than the question, WHO + actually created the universe? + </p> + <p> + Various theories more or less nebulous, but all centred in texts of + Scripture, had swept through the mind of the Church. By some theologians + it was held virtually that the actual creative agent was the third person + of the Trinity, who, in the opening words of our sublime creation poem, + "moved upon the face of the waters." By others it was held that the actual + Creator was the second person of the Trinity, in behalf of whose agency + many texts were cited from the New Testament. Others held that the actual + Creator was the first person, and this view was embodied in the two great + formulas known as the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds, which explicitly + assigned the work to "God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth." + Others, finding a deep meaning in the words "Let US make," ascribed in + Genesis to the Creator, held that the entire Trinity directly created all + things; and still others, by curious metaphysical processes, seemed to + arrive at the idea that peculiar combinations of two persons of the + Trinity achieved the creation. + </p> + <p> + In all this there would seem to be considerable courage in view of the + fearful condemnations launched in the Athanasian Creed against all who + should "confound the persons" or "divide the substance of the Trinity." + </p> + <p> + These various stages in the evolution of scholastic theology were also + embodied in sacred art, and especially in cathedral sculpture, in + glass-staining, in mosaic working, and in missal painting. + </p> + <p> + The creative Being is thus represented sometimes as the third person of + the Trinity, in the form of a dove brooding over chaos; sometimes as the + second person, and therefore a youth; sometimes as the first person, and + therefore fatherly and venerable; sometimes as the first and second + persons, one being venerable and the other youthful; and sometimes as + three persons, one venerable and one youthful, both wearing papal crowns, + and each holding in his lips a tip of the wing of the dove, which thus + seems to proceed from both and to be suspended between them. + </p> + <p> + Nor was this the most complete development of the medieval idea. The + Creator was sometimes represented with a single body, but with three + faces, thus showing that Christian belief had in some pious minds gone + through substantially the same cycle which an earlier form of belief had + made ages before in India, when the Supreme Being was represented with one + body but with the three faces of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. + </p> + <p> + But at the beginning of the modern period the older view in its primitive + Jewish form was impressed upon Christians by the most mighty genius in art + the world has known; for in 1512, after four years of Titanic labour, + Michael Angelo uncovered his frescoes within the vault of the Sistine + Chapel. + </p> + <p> + They had been executed by the command and under the sanction of the ruling + Pope, Julius II, to represent the conception of Christian theology then + dominant, and they remain to-day in all their majesty to show the highest + point ever attained by the older thought upon the origin of the visible + universe. + </p> + <p> + In the midst of the expanse of heaven the Almighty Father—the first + person of the Trinity—in human form, august and venerable, attended + by angels and upborne by mighty winds, sweeps over the abyss, and, moving + through successive compartments of the great vault, accomplishes the work + of the creative days. With a simple gesture he divides the light from the + darkness, rears on high the solid firmament, gathers together beneath it + the seas, or summons into existence the sun, moon, and planets, and sets + them circling about the earth. + </p> + <p> + In this sublime work culminated the thought of thousands of years; the + strongest minds accepted it or pretended to accept it, and nearly two + centuries later this conception, in accordance with the first of the two + accounts given in Genesis, was especially enforced by Bossuet, and + received a new lease of life in the Church, both Catholic and + Protestant.(7) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (7) For strange representations of the Creator and of the creation by +one, two, or three persons of the Trinity, see Didron, Iconographie +Chretienne, pp. 35, 178, 224, 483, 567-580, and elsewhere; also Detzel +as already cited. The most naive of all survivals of the mediaeval idea +of creation which the present writer has ever seen was exhibited in +1894 on the banner of one of the guilds at the celebration of the +four-hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Munich Cathedral. +Jesus of Nazareth, as a beautiful boy and with a nimbus encircling his +head, was shown turning and shaping the globe on a lathe, which he keeps +in motion with his foot. The emblems of the Passion are about him, +God the Father looking approvingly upon him from a cloud, and the dove +hovering between the two. The date upon the banner was 1727. +</pre> + <p> + But to these discussions was added yet another, which, beginning in the + early days of the Church, was handed down the ages until it had died out + among the theologians of our own time. + </p> + <p> + In the first of the biblical accounts light is created and the distinction + between day and night thereby made on the first day, while the sun and + moon are not created until the fourth day. Masses of profound theological + and pseudo-scientific reasoning have been developed to account for this—masses + so great that for ages they have obscured the simple fact that the + original text is a precious revelation to us of one of the most ancient of + recorded beliefs—the belief that light and darkness are entities + independent of the heavenly bodies, and that the sun, moon, and stars + exist not merely to increase light but to "divide the day from the night, + to be for signs and for seasons, and for days and for years," and "to rule + the day and the night." + </p> + <p> + Of this belief we find survivals among the early fathers, and especially + in St. Ambrose. In his work on creation he tells us: "We must remember + that the light of day is one thing and the light of the sun, moon, and + stars another—the sun by his rays appearing to add lustre to the + daylight. For before sunrise the day dawns, but is not in full refulgence, + for the sun adds still further to its splendour." This idea became one of + the "treasures of sacred knowledge committed to the Church," and was + faithfully received by the Middle Ages. The medieval mysteries and miracle + plays give curious evidences of this: In a performance of the creation, + when God separates light from darkness, the stage direction is, "Now a + painted cloth is to be exhibited, one half black and the other half + white." It was also given more permanent form. In the mosaics of San Marco + at Venice, in the frescoes of the Baptistery at Florence and of the Church + of St. Francis at Assisi, and in the altar carving at Salerno, we find a + striking realization of it—the Creator placing in the heavens two + disks or living figures of equal size, each suitably coloured or inscribed + to show that one represents light and the other darkness. This conception + was without doubt that of the person or persons who compiled from the + Chaldean and other earlier statements the accounts of the creation in the + first of our sacred books.(8) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (8) For scriptural indications of the independent existence of light and +darkness, compare with the first verses of the chapter of Genesis such +passages as Job xxxviii, 19,24; for the general prevalence of this early +view, see Lukas, Kosmogonie, pp. 31, 33, 41, 74, and passim; for the +view of St. Ambrose regarding the creation of light and of the sun, see +his Hexameron, lib. 4, cap. iii; for an excellent general statement, +see Huxley, Mr. Gladstone and Genesis, in the Nineteenth Century, 1886, +reprinted in his Essays on Controverted Questions, London, 1892, +note, pp. 126 et seq.; for the acceptance in the miracle plays of the +scriptural idea of light and darkness as independent creations, see +Wright, Essays on Archeological Subjects, vol. ii, p.178; for an +account, with illustrations, of the mosaics, etc., representing this +idea, see Tikkanen, Die Genesis-mosaiken von San Marco, Helsingfors, +1889, p. 14 and 16 of the text and Plates I and II. Very naively the +Salerno carver, not wishing to colour the ivory which he wrought, has +inscribed on one disk the word "LUX" and on the other "NOX." See also +Didron, Iconographie, p. 482. +</pre> + <p> + Thus, down to a period almost within living memory, it was held, virtually + "always, everywhere, and by all," that the universe, as we now see it, was + created literally and directly by the voice or hands of the Almighty, or + by both—out of nothing—in an instant or in six days, or in + both—about four thousand years before the Christian era—and + for the convenience of the dwellers upon the earth, which was at the base + and foundation of the whole structure. + </p> + <p> + But there had been implanted along through the ages germs of another + growth in human thinking, some of them even as early as the Babylonian + period. In the Assyrian inscriptions we find recorded the + Chaldeo-Babylonian idea of AN EVOLUTION of the universe out of the + primeval flood or "great deep," and of the animal creation out of the + earth and sea. This idea, recast, partially at least, into monotheistic + form, passed naturally into the sacred books of the neighbours and pupils + of the Chaldeans—the Hebrews; but its growth in Christendom + afterward was checked, as we shall hereafter find, by the more powerful + influence of other inherited statements which appealed more intelligibly + to the mind of the Church. + </p> + <p> + Striking, also, was the effect of this idea as rewrought by the early + Ionian philosophers, to whom it was probably transmitted from the + Chaldeans through the Phoenicians. In the minds of Ionians like + Anaximander and Anaximenes it was most clearly developed: the first of + these conceiving of the visible universe as the result of processes of + evolution, and the latter pressing further the same mode of reasoning, and + dwelling on agencies in cosmic development recognised in modern science. + </p> + <p> + This general idea of evolution in Nature thus took strong hold upon Greek + thought and was developed in many ways, some ingenious, some perverse. + Plato, indeed, withstood it; but Aristotle sometimes developed it in a + manner which reminds us of modern views. + </p> + <p> + Among the Romans Lucretius caught much from it, extending the evolutionary + process virtually to all things. + </p> + <p> + In the early Church, as we have seen, the idea of a creation direct, + material, and by means like those used by man, was all-powerful for the + exclusion of conceptions based on evolution. From the more simple and + crude of the views of creation given in the Babylonian legends, and thence + incorporated into Genesis, rose the stream of orthodox thought on the + subject, which grew into a flood and swept on through the Middle Ages and + into modern times. Yet here and there in the midst of this flood were high + grounds of thought held by strong men. Scotus Erigena and Duns Scotus, + among the schoolmen, bewildered though they were, had caught some rays of + this ancient light, and passed on to their successors, in modified form, + doctrines of an evolutionary process in the universe. + </p> + <p> + In the latter half of the sixteenth century these evolutionary theories + seemed to take more definite form in the mind of Giordano Bruno, who + evidently divined the fundamental idea of what is now known as the + "nebular hypothesis"; but with his murder by the Inquisition at Rome this + idea seemed utterly to disappear—dissipated by the flames which in + 1600 consumed his body on the Campo dei Fiori. + </p> + <p> + Yet within the two centuries divided by Bruno's death the world was led + into a new realm of thought in which an evolution theory of the visible + universe was sure to be rapidly developed. For there came, one after the + other, five of the greatest men our race has produced—Copernicus, + Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, and Newton—and when their work was done + the old theological conception of the universe was gone. "The spacious + firmament on high"—"the crystalline spheres"—the Almighty + enthroned upon "the circle of the heavens," and with his own lands, or + with angels as his agents, keeping sun, moon, and planets in motion for + the benefit of the earth, opening and closing the "windows of heaven," + letting down upon the earth the "waters above the firmament," "setting his + bow in the cloud," hanging out "signs and wonders," hurling comets, + "casting forth lightnings" to scare the wicked, and "shaking the earth" in + his wrath: all this had disappeared. + </p> + <p> + These five men had given a new divine revelation to the world; and through + the last, Newton, had come a vast new conception, destined to be fatal to + the old theory of creation, for he had shown throughout the universe, in + place of almighty caprice, all-pervading law. The bitter opposition of + theology to the first four of these men is well known; but the fact is not + so widely known that Newton, in spite of his deeply religious spirit, was + also strongly opposed. It was vigorously urged against him that by his + statement of the law of gravitation he "took from God that direct action + on his works so constantly ascribed to him in Scripture and transferred it + to material mechanism," and that he "substituted gravitation for + Providence." + </p> + <p> + But, more than this, these men gave a new basis for the theory of + evolution as distinguished from the theory of creation. + </p> + <p> + Especially worthy of note is it that the great work of Descartes, + erroneous as many of its deductions were, and, in view of the lack of + physical knowledge in his time, must be, had done much to weaken the old + conception. His theory of a universe brought out of all-pervading matter, + wrought into orderly arrangement by movements in accordance with physical + laws—though it was but a provisional hypothesis—had done much + to draw men's minds from the old theological view of creation; it was an + example of intellectual honesty arriving at errors, but thereby aiding the + advent of truths. Crippled though Descartes was by his almost morbid fear + of the Church, this part of his work was no small factor in bringing in + that attitude of mind which led to a reception of the thoughts of more + unfettered thinkers. + </p> + <p> + Thirty years later came, in England, an effort of a different sort, but + with a similar result. In 1678 Ralph Cudworth published his Intellectual + System of the Universe. To this day he remains, in breadth of scholarship, + in strength of thought, in tolerance, and in honesty, one of the greatest + glories of the English Church, and his work was worthy of him. He purposed + to build a fortress which should protect Christianity against all + dangerous theories of the universe, ancient or modern. The foundations of + the structure were laid with old thoughts thrown often into new and + striking forms; but, as the superstructure arose more and more into view, + while genius marked every part of it, features appeared which gave the + rigidly orthodox serious misgivings. From the old theories of direct + personal action on the universe by the Almighty he broke utterly. He dwelt + on the action of law, rejected the continuous exercise of miraculous + intervention, pointed out the fact that in the natural world there are + "errors" and "bungles," and argued vigorously in favour of the origin and + maintenance of the universe as a slow and gradual development of Nature in + obedience to an inward principle. The Balaks of seventeenth-century + orthodoxy might well condemn this honest Balaam. + </p> + <p> + Toward the end of the next century a still more profound genius, Immanuel + Kant, presented the nebular theory, giving it, in the light of Newton's + great utterances, a consistency which it never before had; and about the + same time Laplace gave it yet greater strength by mathematical reasonings + of wonderful power and extent, thus implanting firmly in modern thought + the idea that our own solar system and others—suns, planets, + satellites, and their various movements, distances, and magnitudes—necessarily + result from the obedience of nebulous masses to natural laws. + </p> + <p> + Throughout the theological world there was an outcry at once against + "atheism," and war raged fiercely. Herschel and others pointed out many + nebulous patches apparently gaseous. They showed by physical and + mathematical demonstrations that the hypothesis accounted for the great + body of facts, and, despite clamour, were gaining ground, when the + improved telescopes resolved some of the patches of nebulous matter into + multitudes of stars. The opponents of the nebular hypothesis were + overjoyed; they now sang paeans to astronomy, because, as they said, it + had proved the truth of Scripture. They had jumped to the conclusion that + all nebula must be alike; that, if SOME are made up of systems of stars, + ALL must be so made up; that none can be masses of attenuated gaseous + matter, because some are not. + </p> + <p> + Science halted for a time. The accepted doctrine became this: that the + only reason why all the nebula are not resolved into distinct stars is + that our telescopes are not sufficiently powerful. But in time came the + discovery of the spectroscope and spectrum analysis, and thence + Fraunhofer's discovery that the spectrum of an ignited gaseous body is + non-continuous, with interrupting lines; and Draper's discovery that the + spectrum of an ignited solid is continuous, with no interrupting lines. + And now the spectroscope was turned upon the nebula, and many of them were + found to be gaseous. Here, then, was ground for the inference that in + these nebulous masses at different stages of condensation—some + apparently mere pitches of mist, some with luminous centres—we have + the process of development actually going on, and observations like those + of Lord Rosse and Arrest gave yet further confirmation to this view. Then + came the great contribution of the nineteenth century to physics, aiding + to explain important parts of the vast process by the mechanical theory of + heat. + </p> + <p> + Again the nebular hypothesis came forth stronger than ever, and about 1850 + the beautiful experiment of Plateau on the rotation of a fluid globe came + in apparently to illustrate if not to confirm it. Even so determined a + defender of orthodoxy as Mr. Gladstone at last acknowledged some form of a + nebular hypothesis as probably true. + </p> + <p> + Here, too, was exhibited that form of surrendering theological views to + science under the claim that science concurs with theology, which we have + seen in so many other fields; and, as typical, an example may be given, + which, however restricted in its scope, throws light on the process by + which such surrenders are obtained. A few years since one of the most + noted professors of chemistry in the city of New York, under the auspices + of one of its most fashionable churches, gave a lecture which, as was + claimed in the public prints and in placards posted in the streets, was to + show that science supports the theory of creation given in the sacred + books ascribed to Moses. A large audience assembled, and a brilliant + series of elementary experiments with oxygen, hydrogen, and carbonic acid + was concluded by the Plateau demonstration. It was beautifully made. As + the coloured globule of oil, representing the earth, was revolved in a + transparent medium of equal density, as it became flattened at the poles, + as rings then broke forth from it and revolved about it, and, finally, as + some of these rings broke into satellites, which for a moment continued to + circle about the central mass, the audience, as well they might, rose and + burst into rapturous applause. + </p> + <p> + Thereupon a well-to-do citizen arose and moved the thanks of the audience + to the eminent professor for "this perfect demonstration of the exact and + literal conformity of the statements given in Holy Scripture with the + latest results of science." The motion was carried unanimously and with + applause, and the audience dispersed, feeling that a great service had + been rendered to orthodoxy. Sancta simplicitas! + </p> + <p> + What this incident exhibited on a small scale has been seen elsewhere with + more distinguished actors and on a broader stage. Scores of theologians, + chief among whom of late, in zeal if not in knowledge, has been Mr. + Gladstone, have endeavoured to "reconcile" the two accounts in Genesis + with each other and with the truths regarding the origin of the universe + gained by astronomy, geology, geography, physics, and chemistry. The + result has been recently stated by an eminent theologian, the Hulsean + Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge. He declares, "No + attempt at reconciling genesis with the exacting requirements of modern + sciences has ever been known to succeed without entailing a degree of + special pleading or forced interpretation to which, in such a question, we + should be wise to have no recourse."(9) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (9) For an interesting reference to the outcry against Newton, see +McCosh, The Religious Aspect of Evolution, New York, 1890, pp. 103, +104; for germs of an evolutionary view among the Babylonians, see George +Smith, Chaldean Account of Genesis, New York, 1876, pp. 74, 75; for a +germ of the same thought in Lucretius, see his De Natura Rerum, lib. +v, pp.187-194, 447-454; for Bruno's conjecture (in 1591), see Jevons, +Principles of Science, London, 1874, vol. ii, p. 36; for Kant's +statement, see his Naturgeschichte des Himmels; for his part in the +nebular hypothesis, see Lange, Geschichte des Materialismus, vol. i, +p.266; for the value of Plateau's beautiful experiment, very cautiously +estimated, see Jevons, vol. ii, p. 36; also Elisee Reclus, The Earth, +translated by Woodward, vol. i, pp. 14-18, for an estimate still more +careful; for a general account of discoveries of the nature of nebulae +by spectroscope, see Draper, Conflict between Religion and Science; for +a careful discussion regarding the spectra of solid, liquid, and gaseous +bodies, see Schellen, Spectrum Analysis, pp. 100 et seq.; for a very +thorough discussion of the bearings of discoveries made by spectrum +analysis upon the nebular hypothesis, ibid., pp. 532-537; for a +presentation of the difficulties yet unsolved, see an article by Plummer +in the London Popular Science Review for January, 1875; for an excellent +short summary of recent observations and thoughts on this subject, see +T. Sterry Hunt, Address at the Priestley Centennial, pp. 7, 8; for an +interesting modification of this hypothesis, see Proctor's writings; for +a still more recent view see Lockyer's two articles on The Sun's Place +in Nature for February 14 and 25, 1895. +</pre> + <p> + The revelations of another group of sciences, though sometimes bitterly + opposed and sometimes "reconciled" by theologians, have finally set the + whole question at rest. First, there have come the biblical critics—earnest + Christian scholars, working for the sake of truth—and these have + revealed beyond the shadow of a reasonable doubt the existence of at least + two distinct accounts of creation in our book of Genesis, which can + sometimes be forced to agree, but which are generally absolutely at + variance with each other. These scholars have further shown the two + accounts to be not the cunningly devised fables of priestcraft, but + evidently fragments of earlier legends, myths, and theologies, accepted in + good faith and brought together for the noblest of purposes by those who + put in order the first of our sacred books. + </p> + <p> + Next have come the archaeologists and philologists, the devoted students + of ancient monuments and records; of these are such as Rawlinson, George + Smith, Sayce, Oppert, Jensen, Schrader, Delitzsch, and a phalanx of + similarly devoted scholars, who have deciphered a multitude of ancient + texts, especially the inscriptions found in the great library of + Assurbanipal at Nineveh, and have discovered therein an account of the + origin of the world identical in its most important features with the + later accounts in our own book of Genesis. + </p> + <p> + These men have had the courage to point out these facts and to connect + them with the truth that these Chaldean and Babylonian myths, legends, and + theories were far earlier than those of the Hebrews, which so strikingly + resemble them, and which we have in our sacred books; and they have also + shown us how natural it was that the Jewish accounts of the creation + should have been obtained at that remote period when the earliest Hebrews + were among the Chaldeans, and how the great Hebrew poetic accounts of + creation were drawn either from the sacred traditions of these earlier + peoples or from antecedent sources common to various ancient nations. + </p> + <p> + In a summary which for profound thought and fearless integrity does honour + not only to himself but to the great position which he holds, the Rev. Dr. + Driver, Professor of Hebrew and Canon of Christ Church at Oxford, has + recently stated the case fully and fairly. Having pointed out the fact + that the Hebrews were one people out of many who thought upon the origin + of the universe, he says that they "framed theories to account for the + beginnings of the earth and man"; that "they either did this for + themselves or borrowed those of their neighbours"; that "of the theories + current in Assyria and Phoenicia fragments have been preserved, and these + exhibit points of resemblance with the biblical narrative sufficient to + warrant the inference that both are derived from the same cycle of + tradition." + </p> + <p> + After giving some extracts from the Chaldean creation tablets he says: "In + the light of these facts it is difficult to resist the conclusion that the + biblical narrative is drawn from the same source as these other records. + The biblical historians, it is plain, derived their materials from the + best human sources available.... The materials which with other nations + were combined into the crudest physical theories or associated with a + grotesque polytheism were vivified and transformed by the inspired genius + of the Hebrew historians, and adapted to become the vehicle of profound + religious truth." + </p> + <p> + Not less honourable to the sister university and to himself is the + statement recently made by the Rev. Dr. Ryle, Hulsean Professor of + Divinity at Cambridge. He says that to suppose that a Christian "must + either renounce his confidence in the achievements of scientific research + or abandon his faith in Scripture is a monstrous perversion of Christian + freedom." He declares: "The old position is no longer tenable; a new + position has to be taken up at once, prayerfully chosen, and hopefully + held." He then goes on to compare the Hebrew story of creation with the + earlier stories developed among kindred peoples, and especially with the + pre-existing Assyro-Babylonian cosmogony, and shows that they are from the + same source. He points out that any attempt to explain particular features + of the story into harmony with the modern scientific ideas necessitates "a + non-natural" interpretation; but he says that, if we adopt a natural + interpretation, "we shall consider that the Hebrew description of the + visible universe is unscientific as judged by modern standards, and that + it shares the limitations of the imperfect knowledge of the age at which + it was committed to writing." Regarding the account in Genesis of man's + physical origin, he says that it "is expressed in the simple terms of + prehistoric legend, of unscientific pictorial description." + </p> + <p> + In these statements and in a multitude of others made by eminent Christian + investigators in other countries is indicated what the victory is which + has now been fully won over the older theology. + </p> + <p> + Thus, from the Assyrian researches as well as from other sources, it has + come to be acknowledged by the most eminent scholars at the leading seats + of Christian learning that the accounts of creation with which for nearly + two thousand years all scientific discoveries have had to be "reconciled"—the + accounts which blocked the way of Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and + Laplace—were simply transcribed or evolved from a mass of myths and + legends largely derived by the Hebrews from their ancient relations with + Chaldea, rewrought in a monotheistic sense, imperfectly welded together, + and then thrown into poetic forms in the sacred books which we have + inherited. + </p> + <p> + On one hand, then, we have the various groups of men devoted to the + physical sciences all converging toward the proofs that the universe, as + we at present know it, is the result of an evolutionary process—that + is, of the gradual working of physical laws upon an early condition of + matter; on the other hand, we have other great groups of men devoted to + historical, philological, and archaeological science whose researches all + converge toward the conclusion that our sacred accounts of creation were + the result of an evolution from an early chaos of rude opinion. + </p> + <p> + The great body of theologians who have so long resisted the conclusions of + the men of science have claimed to be fighting especially for "the truth + of Scripture," and their final answer to the simple conclusions of science + regarding the evolution of the material universe has been the cry, "The + Bible is true." And they are right—though in a sense nobler than + they have dreamed. Science, while conquering them, has found in our + Scriptures a far nobler truth than that literal historical exactness for + which theologians have so long and so vainly contended. More and more as + we consider the results of the long struggle in this field we are brought + to the conclusion that the inestimable value of the great sacred books of + the world is found in their revelation of the steady striving of our race + after higher conceptions, beliefs, and aspirations, both in morals and + religion. Unfolding and exhibiting this long-continued effort, each of the + great sacred books of the world is precious, and all, in the highest + sense, are true. Not one of them, indeed, conforms to the measure of what + mankind has now reached in historical and scientific truth; to make a + claim to such conformity is folly, for it simply exposes those who make it + and the books for which it is made to loss of their just influence. + </p> + <p> + That to which the great sacred books of the world conform, and our own + most of all, is the evolution of the highest conceptions, beliefs, and + aspirations of our race from its childhood through the great + turning-points in its history. Herein lies the truth of all bibles, and + especially of our own. Of vast value they indeed often are as a record of + historical outward fact; recent researches in the East are constantly + increasing this value; but it is not for this that we prize them most: + they are eminently precious, not as a record of outward fact, but as a + mirror of the evolving heart, mind, and soul of man. They are true because + they have been developed in accordance with the laws governing the + evolution of truth in human history, and because in poem, chronicle, code, + legend, myth, apologue, or parable they reflect this development of what + is best in the onward march of humanity. To say that they are not true is + as if one should say that a flower or a tree or a planet is not true; to + scoff at them is to scoff at the law of the universe. In welding together + into noble form, whether in the book of Genesis, or in the Psalms, or in + the book of Job, or elsewhere, the great conceptions of men acting under + earlier inspiration, whether in Egypt, or Chaldea, or India, or Persia, + the compilers of our sacred books have given to humanity a possession ever + becoming more and more precious; and modern science, in substituting a new + heaven and a new earth for the old—the reign of law for the reign of + caprice, and the idea of evolution for that of creation—has added + and is steadily adding a new revelation divinely inspired. + </p> + <p> + In the light of these two evolutions, then—one of the visible + universe, the other of a sacred creation-legend—science and + theology, if the master minds in both are wise, may at last be reconciled. + A great step in this reconciliation was recently seen at the main centre + of theological thought among English-speaking people, when, in the + collection of essays entitled Lux Mundi, emanating from the college + established in these latter days as a fortress of orthodoxy at Oxford, the + legendary character of the creation accounts in our sacred books was + acknowledged, and when the Archbishop of Canterbury asked, "May not the + Holy Spirit at times have made use of myth and legend?"(10) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (10) For the first citations above made, see The Cosmogony of Genesis, +by the Rev. S. R. Driver, D.D., Canon of Christ Church and Regius +Professor of Hebrew at Oxford, in the Expositor for January, 1886; for +the second series of citations, see the Early Narratives of Genesis, by +Herbert Edward Ryle, Hulsean Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, London, +1892. For evidence that even the stiffest of Scotch Presbyterians have +come to discard the old literal biblical narrative of creation and +to regard the declaration of the Westminster Confession thereon as +a "disproved theory of creation," see Principal John Tulloch, +in Contemporary Review, March, 1877, on Religious Thought in +Scotland—especially page 550. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II. THEOLOGICAL TEACHINGS REGARDING THE ANIMALS AND MAN. + </h2> + <p> + In one of the windows of the cathedral at Ulm a mediaeval glass-stainer + has represented the Almighty as busily engaged in creating the animals, + and there has just left the divine hands an elephant fully accoutred, with + armour, harness, and housings, ready-for war. Similar representations + appear in illuminated manuscripts and even in early printed books, and, as + the culmination of the whole, the Almighty is shown as fashioning the + first man from a hillock of clay and extracting from his side, with + evident effort, the first woman. + </p> + <p> + This view of the general process of creation had come from far, appearing + under varying forms in various ancient cosmogonies. In the Egyptian + temples at Philae and Denderah may still be seen representations of the + Nile gods modelling lumps of clay into men, and a similar work is ascribed + in the Assyrian tablets to the gods of Babylonia. Passing into our own + sacred books, these ideas became the starting point of a vast new + development of theology.(11) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (11) For representations of Egyptian gods creating men out of lumps +of clay, see Maspero and Sayce, The Dawn of History, p. 156; for the +Chaldean legends of the creation of men and animals, see ibid., p. 543; +see also George Smith, Chaldean Accounts of Genesis, Sayce's edition, +pp. 36, 72, and 93; also for similar legends in other ancient nations, +Lenormant, Origines de l'Histoire, pp. 17 et seq.; for mediaeval +representations of the creation of man and woman, see Didron, +Iconographie, pp. 35, 178, 224, 537. +</pre> + <p> + The fathers of the Church generally received each of the two conflicting + creation legends in Genesis literally, and then, having done their best to + reconcile them with each other and to mould them together, made them the + final test of thought upon the universe and all things therein. At the + beginning of the fourth century Lactantius struck the key-note of this + mode of subordinating all other things in the study of creation to the + literal text of Scripture, and he enforces his view of the creation of man + by a bit of philology, saying the final being created "is called man + because he is made from the ground—homo ex humo." + </p> + <p> + In the second half of the same century this view as to the literal + acceptance of the sacred text was reasserted by St. Ambrose, who, in his + work on the creation, declared that "Moses opened his mouth and poured + forth what God had said to him." But a greater than either of them + fastened this idea into the Christian theologies. St. Augustine, preparing + his Commentary on the Book of Genesis, laid down in one famous sentence + the law which has lasted in the Church until our own time: "Nothing is to + be accepted save on the authority of Scripture, since greater is that + authority than all the powers of the human mind." The vigour of the + sentence in its original Latin carried it ringing down the centuries: + "Major est Scripturae auctoritas quam omnis humani ingenii capacitas." + </p> + <p> + Through the mediaeval period, in spite of a revolt led by no other than + St. Augustine himself, and followed by a series of influential churchmen, + contending, as we shall hereafter see, for a modification of the accepted + view of creation, this phrase held the minds of men firmly. The great + Dominican encyclopaedist, Vincent of Beauvais, in his Mirror of Nature, + while mixing ideas brought from Aristotle with a theory drawn from the + Bible, stood firmly by the first of the accounts given in Genesis, and + assigned the special virtue of the number six as a reason why all things + were created in six days; and in the later Middle Ages that eminent + authority, Cardinal d' Ailly, accepted everything regarding creation in + the sacred books literally. Only a faint dissent is seen in Gregory + Reisch, another authority of this later period, who, while giving, in his + book on the beginning of things, a full length woodcut showing the + Almighty in the act of extracting Eve from Adam's side, with all the rest + of new-formed Nature in the background, leans in his writings, like St. + Augustine, toward a belief in the pre-existence of matter. + </p> + <p> + At the Reformation the vast authority of Luther was thrown in favour of + the literal acceptance of Scripture as the main source of natural science. + The allegorical and mystical interpretations of earlier theologians he + utterly rejected. "Why," he asks, "should Moses use allegory when he is + not speaking of allegorical creatures or of an allegorical world, but of + real creatures and of a visible world, which can be seen, felt, and + grasped? Moses calls things by their right names, as we ought to do.... I + hold that the animals took their being at once upon the word of God, as + did also the fishes in the sea." + </p> + <p> + Not less explicit in his adherence to the literal account of creation + given in Genesis was Calvin. He warns those who, by taking another view + than his own, "basely insult the Creator, to expect a judge who will + annihilate them." He insists that all species of animals were created in + six days, each made up of an evening and a morning, and that no new + species has ever appeared since. He dwells on the production of birds from + the water as resting upon certain warrant of Scripture, but adds, "If the + question is to be argued on physical grounds, we know that water is more + akin to air than the earth is." As to difficulties in the scriptural + account of creation, he tells us that God "wished by these to give proofs + of his power which should fill us with astonishment." + </p> + <p> + The controlling minds in the Roman Church steadfastly held this view. In + the seventeenth century Bossuet threw his vast authority in its favour, + and in his Discourse on Universal History, which has remained the + foundation not only of theological but of general historical teaching in + France down to the present republic, we find him calling attention to what + he regards as the culminating act of creation, and asserting that, + literally, for the creation of man earth was used, and "the finger of God + applied to corruptible matter." + </p> + <p> + The Protestant world held this idea no less persistently. In the + seventeenth century Dr. John Lightfoot, Vice-Chancellor of the University + of Cambridge, the great rabbinical scholar of his time, attempted to + reconcile the two main legends in Genesis by saying that of the "clean + sort of beasts there were seven of every kind created, three couples for + breeding and the odd one for Adam's sacrifice on his fall, which God + foresaw"; and that of unclean beasts only one couple was created. + </p> + <p> + So literal was this whole conception of the work of creation that in these + days it can scarcely be imagined. The Almighty was represented in + theological literature, in the pictured Bibles, and in works of art + generally, as a sort of enlarged and venerable Nuremberg toymaker. At + times the accounts in Genesis were illustrated with even more literal + exactness; thus, in connection with a well-known passage in the sacred + text, the Creator was shown as a tailor, seated, needle in hand, + diligently sewing together skins of beasts into coats for Adam and Eve. + Such representations presented no difficulties to the docile minds of the + Middle Ages and the Reformation period; and in the same spirit, when the + discovery of fossils began to provoke thought, these were declared to be + "models of his works approved or rejected by the great Artificer," + "outlines of future creations," "sports of Nature," or "objects placed in + the strata to bring to naught human curiosity"; and this kind of + explanation lingered on until in our own time an eminent naturalist, in + his anxiety to save the literal account in Genesis, has urged that Jehovah + tilted and twisted the strata, scattered the fossils through them, + scratched the glacial furrows upon them, spread over them the marks of + erosion by water, and set Niagara pouring—all in an instant—thus + mystifying the world "for some inscrutable purpose, but for his own + glory."(12) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (12) For the citation from Lactantius, see Divin. Instit., lib. ii, cap. +xi, in Migne, tome vi, pp. 311, 312; for St. Augustine's great phrase, +see the De Genes. ad litt., ii, 5; for St. Ambrose, see lib. i, cap. ii; +for Vincent of Beauvais, see the Speculum Naturale, lib. i, cap. ii, and +lib. ii, cap. xv and xxx; also Bourgeat, Etudes sur Vincent de Beauvais, +Paris, 1856, especially chaps. vii, xii, and xvi; for Cardinal d"ailly, +see the Imago Mundi, and for Reisch, see the various editions of the +Margarita Philosophica; for Luther's statements, see Luther's Schriften, +ed. Walch, Halle, 1740, Commentary on Genesis, vol. i; for Calvin's view +of the creation of the animals, including the immutability of Species, +see the Comm. in Gen., tome i of his Opera omnia, Amst., 1671, cap. i, +v, xx, p. 5, also cap. ii, v, ii, p. 8, and elsewhere; for Bossuet, see +his Discours sur l'Histoire universelle (in his OEuvres, tome v, Paris, +1846); for Lightfoot, see his works, edited by Pitman, London, 1822; +for Bede, see the Hexaemeron, lib. i, in Migne, tome xci, p.21; for Mr. +Gosse'smodern defence of the literal view, see his Omphalos, London, +1857, passim. +</pre> + <p> + The next important development of theological reasoning had regard to the + DIVISIONS of the animal kingdom. + </p> + <p> + Naturally, one of the first divisions which struck the inquiring mind was + that between useful and noxious creatures, and the question therefore + occurred, How could a good God create tigers and serpents, thorns and + thistles? The answer was found in theological considerations upon SIN. To + man's first disobedience all woes were due. Great men for eighteen hundred + years developed the theory that before Adam's disobedience there was no + death, and therefore neither ferocity nor venom. + </p> + <p> + Some typical utterances in the evolution of this doctrine are worthy of a + passing glance. St. Augustine expressly confirmed and emphasized the view + that the vegetable as well as the animal kingdom was cursed on account of + man's sin. Two hundred years later this utterance had been echoed on from + father to father of the Church until it was caught by Bede; he declared + that before man's fall animals were harmless, but were made poisonous or + hurtful by Adam's sin, and he said, "Thus fierce and poisonous animals + were created for terrifying man (because God foresaw that he would sin), + in order that he might be made aware of the final punishment of hell." + </p> + <p> + In the twelfth century this view was incorporated by Peter Lombard into + his great theological work, the Sentences, which became a text-book of + theology through the middle ages. He affirmed that "no created things + would have been hurtful to man had he not sinned; they became hurtful for + the sake of terrifying and punishing vice or of proving and perfecting + virtue; they were created harmless, and on account of sin became hurtful." + </p> + <p> + This theological theory regarding animals was brought out in the + eighteenth century with great force by John Wesley. He declared that + before Adam's sin "none of these attempted to devour or in any wise hurt + one another"; "the spider was as harmless as the fly, and did not lie in + wait for blood." Not only Wesley, but the eminent Dr. Adam Clarke and Dr. + Richard Watson, whose ideas had the very greatest weight among the English + Dissenters, and even among leading thinkers in the Established Church, + held firmly to this theory; so that not until, in our own time, geology + revealed the remains of vast multitudes of carnivorous creatures, many of + them with half-digested remains of other animals in their stomachs, all + extinct long ages before the appearance of man upon earth, was a victory + won by science over theology in this field. + </p> + <p> + A curious development of this doctrine was seen in the belief drawn by + sundry old commentators from the condemnation of the serpent in Genesis—a + belief, indeed, perfectly natural, since it was evidently that of the + original writers of the account preserved in the first of our sacred + books. This belief was that, until the tempting serpent was cursed by the + Almighty, all serpents stood erect, walked, and talked. + </p> + <p> + This belief was handed down the ages as part of "the sacred deposit of the + faith" until Watson, the most prolific writer of the evangelical reform in + the eighteenth century and the standard theologian of the evangelical + party, declared: "We have no reason at all to believe that the animal had + a serpentine form in any mode or degree until its transformation; that he + was then degraded to a reptile to go upon his belly imports, on the + contrary, an entire loss and alteration of the original form." Here, + again, was a ripe result of the theologic method diligently pursued by the + strongest thinkers in the Church during nearly two thousand years; but + this "sacred deposit" also faded away when the geologists found abundant + remains of fossil serpents dating from periods long before the appearance + of man. + </p> + <p> + Troublesome questions also arose among theologians regarding animals + classed as "superfluous." St. Augustine was especially exercised thereby. + He says: "I confess I am ignorant why mice and frogs were created, or + flies and worms.... All creatures are either useful, hurtful, or + superfluous to us.... As for the hurtful creatures, we are either + punished, or disciplined, or terrified by them, so that we may not cherish + and love this life." As to the "superfluous animals," he says, "Although + they are not necessary for our service, yet the whole design of the + universe is thereby completed and finished." Luther, who followed St. + Augustine in so many other matters, declined to follow him fully in this. + To him a fly was not merely superfluous, it was noxious—sent by the + devil to vex him when reading. + </p> + <p> + Another subject which gave rise to much searching of Scripture and long + trains of theological reasoning was the difference between the creation of + man and that of other living beings. + </p> + <p> + Great stress was laid by theologians, from St. Basil and St. Augustine to + St. Thomas Aquinas and Bossuet, and from Luther to Wesley, on the radical + distinction indicated in Genesis, God having created man "in his own + image." What this statement meant was seen in the light of the later + biblical statement that "Adam begat Seth in his own likeness, after his + image." + </p> + <p> + In view of this and of well-known texts incorporated from older creation + legends into the Hebrew sacred books it came to be widely held that, while + man was directly moulded and fashioned separately by the Creator's hand, + the animals generally were evoked in numbers from the earth and sea by the + Creator's voice. + </p> + <p> + A question now arose naturally as to the DISTINCTIONS OF SPECIES among + animals. The vast majority of theologians agreed in representing all + animals as created "in the beginning," and named by Adam, preserved in the + ark, and continued ever afterward under exactly the same species. This + belief ripened into a dogma. Like so many other dogmas in the Church, + Catholic and Protestant, its real origins are to be found rather in pagan + philosophy than in the Christian Scriptures; it came far more from Plato + and Aristotle than from Moses and St. Paul. But this was not considered: + more and more it became necessary to believe that each and every + difference of species was impressed by the Creator "in the beginning," and + that no change had taken place or could have taken place since. + </p> + <p> + Some difficulties arose here and there as zoology progressed and revealed + ever-increasing numbers of species; but through the Middle Ages, and + indeed long after the Reformation, these difficulties were easily + surmounted by making the ark of Noah larger and larger, and especially by + holding that there had been a human error in regard to its + measurement.(13) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (13) For St. Augustine, see De Genesis and De Trinitate, passim; for +Bede, see Hexaemeron, lib. i, in Migne, tome xci, pp. 21, 36-38, 42; and +De Sex Dierum Criatione, in Migne, tome xciii, p. 215; for Peter Lombard +on "noxious animals," see his Sententiae, lib. ii, dist. xv, 3, Migne, +tome cxcii, p. 682; for Wesley, Clarke, and Watson, see quotations from +them and notes thereto in my chapter on Geology; for St. Augustine +on "superfluous animals," see the De Genesi, lib. i, cap. xvi, 26; on +Luther's view of flies, see the Table Talk and his famous utterance, +"Odio muscas quia sunt imagines diaboli et hoereticorum"; for the agency +of Aristotle and Plato in fastening the belief in the fixity of species +into Christian theology, see Sachs, Geschichte der Botanik, Munchen, +1875, p. 107 and note, also p. 113. +</pre> + <p> + But naturally there was developed among both ecclesiastics and laymen a + human desire to go beyond these special points in the history of animated + beings—a desire to know what the creation really IS. + </p> + <p> + Current legends, stories, and travellers' observations, poor as they were, + tended powerfully to stimulate curiosity in this field. + </p> + <p> + Three centuries before the Christian era Aristotle had made the first + really great attempt to satisfy this curiosity, and had begun a + development of studies in natural history which remains one of the leading + achievements in the story of our race. + </p> + <p> + But the feeling which we have already seen so strong in the early Church—that + all study of Nature was futile in view of the approaching end of the world—indicated + so clearly in the New Testament and voiced so powerfully by Lactantius and + St. Augustine—held back this current of thought for many centuries. + Still, the better tendency in humanity continued to assert itself. There + was, indeed, an influence coming from the Hebrew Scriptures themselves + which wrought powerfully to this end; for, in spite of all that Lactantius + or St. Augustine might say as to the futility of any study of Nature, the + grand utterances in the Psalms regarding the beauties and wonders of + creation, in all the glow of the truest poetry, ennobled the study even + among those whom logic drew away from it. + </p> + <p> + But, as a matter of course, in the early Church and throughout the Middle + Ages all such studies were cast in a theologic mould. Without some purpose + of biblical illustration or spiritual edification they were considered + futile too much prying into the secrets of Nature was very generally held + to be dangerous both to body and soul; only for showing forth God's glory + and his purposes in the creation were such studies praiseworthy. The great + work of Aristotle was under eclipse. The early Christian thinkers gave + little attention to it, and that little was devoted to transforming it + into something absolutely opposed to his whole spirit and method; in place + of it they developed the Physiologus and the Bestiaries, mingling + scriptural statements, legends of the saints, and fanciful inventions with + pious intent and childlike simplicity. In place of research came authority—the + authority of the Scriptures as interpreted by the Physio Cogus and the + Bestiaries—and these remained the principal source of thought on + animated Nature for over a thousand years. + </p> + <p> + Occasionally, indeed, fear was shown among the rulers in the Church, even + at such poor prying into the creation as this, and in the fifth century a + synod under Pope Gelasius administered a rebuke to the Physiologus; but + the interest in Nature was too strong: the great work on Creation by St. + Basil had drawn from the Physiologus precious illustrations of Holy Writ, + and the strongest of the early popes, Gregory the Great, virtually + sanctioned it. + </p> + <p> + Thus was developed a sacred science of creation and of the divine purpose + in Nature, which went on developing from the fourth century to the + nineteenth—from St. Basil to St. Isidore of Seville, from Isidore to + Vincent of Beauvais, and from Vincent to Archdeacon Paley and the + Bridgewater Treatises. + </p> + <p> + Like all else in the Middle Ages, this sacred science was developed purely + by theological methods. Neglecting the wonders which the dissection of the + commonest animals would have afforded them, these naturalists attempted to + throw light into Nature by ingenious use of scriptural texts, by research + among the lives of the saints, and by the plentiful application of + metaphysics. Hence even such strong men as St. Isidore of Seville + treasured up accounts of the unicorn and dragons mentioned in the + Scriptures and of the phoenix and basilisk in profane writings. Hence such + contributions to knowledge as that the basilisk kills serpents by his + breath and men by his glance, that the lion when pursued effaces his + tracks with the end of his tail, that the pelican nourishes her young with + her own blood, that serpents lay aside their venom before drinking, that + the salamander quenches fire, that the hyena can talk with shepherds, that + certain birds are born of the fruit of a certain tree when it happens to + fall into the water, with other masses of science equally valuable. + </p> + <p> + As to the method of bringing science to bear on Scripture, the Physiologus + gives an example, illustrating the passage in the book of Job which speaks + of the old lion perishing for lack of prey. Out of the attempt to explain + an unusual Hebrew word in the text there came a curious development of + error, until we find fully evolved an account of the "ant-lion," which, it + gives us to understand, was the lion mentioned by Job, and it says: "As to + the ant-lion, his father hath the shape of a lion, his mother that of an + ant; the father liveth upon flesh and the mother upon herbs; these bring + forth the ant-lion, a compound of both and in part like to either; for his + fore part is like that of a lion and his hind part like that of an ant. + Being thus composed, he is neither able to eat flesh like his father nor + herbs like his mother, and so he perisheth." + </p> + <p> + In the middle of the thirteenth century we have a triumph of this + theological method in the great work of the English Franciscan Bartholomew + on The Properties of Things. The theological method as applied to science + consists largely in accepting tradition and in spinning arguments to fit + it. In this field Bartholomew was a master. Having begun with the intent + mainly to explain the allusions in Scripture to natural objects, he soon + rises logically into a survey of all Nature. Discussing the "cockatrice" + of Scripture, he tells us: "He drieth and burneth leaves with his touch, + and he is of so great venom and perilous that he slayeth and wasteth him + that nigheth him without tarrying; and yet the weasel overcometh him, for + the biting of the weasel is death to the cockatrice. Nevertheless the + biting of the cockatrice is death to the weasel if the weasel eat not rue + before. And though the cockatrice be venomous without remedy while he is + alive, yet he looseth all the malice when he is burnt to ashes. His ashes + be accounted profitable in working of alchemy, and namely in turning and + changing of metals." + </p> + <p> + Bartholomew also enlightens us on the animals of Egypt, and says, "If the + crocodile findeth a man by the water's brim he slayeth him, and then he + weepeth over him and swalloweth him." + </p> + <p> + Naturally this good Franciscan naturalist devotes much thought to the + "dragons" mentioned in Scripture. He says: "The dragon is most greatest of + all serpents, and oft he is drawn out of his den and riseth up into the + air, and the air is moved by him, and also the sea swelleth against his + venom, and he hath a crest, and reareth his tongue, and hath teeth like a + saw, and hath strength, and not only in teeth but in tail, and grieveth + with biting and with stinging. Whom he findeth he slayeth. Oft four or + five of them fasten their tails together and rear up their heads, and sail + over the sea to get good meat. Between elephants and dragons is + everlasting fighting; for the dragon with his tail spanneth the elephant, + and the elephant with his nose throweth down the dragon.... The cause why + the dragon desireth his blood is the coldness thereof, by the which the + dragon desireth to cool himself. Jerome saith that the dragon is a full + thirsty beast, insomuch that he openeth his mouth against the wind to + quench the burning of his thirst in that wise. Therefore, when he seeth + ships in great wind he flieth against the sail to take the cold wind, and + overthroweth the ship." + </p> + <p> + These ideas of Friar Bartholomew spread far and struck deep into the + popular mind. His book was translated into the principal languages of + Europe, and was one of those most generally read during the Ages of Faith. + It maintained its position nearly three hundred years; even after the + invention of printing it held its own, and in the fifteenth century there + were issued no less than ten editions of it in Latin, four in French, and + various versions of it in Dutch, Spanish, and English. Preachers found it + especially useful in illustrating the ways of God to man. It was only when + the great voyages of discovery substituted ascertained fact for + theological reasoning in this province that its authority was broken. + </p> + <p> + The same sort of science flourished in the Bestiaries, which were used + everywhere, and especially in the pulpits, for the edification of the + faithful. In all of these, as in that compiled early in the thirteenth + century by an ecclesiastic, William of Normandy, we have this lesson, + borrowed from the Physiologus: "The lioness giveth birth to cubs which + remain three days without life. Then cometh the lion, breatheth upon them, + and bringeth them to life.... Thus it is that Jesus Christ during three + days was deprived of life, but God the Father raised him gloriously." + </p> + <p> + Pious use was constantly made of this science, especially by monkish + preachers. The phoenix rising from his ashes proves the doctrine of the + resurrection; the structure and mischief of monkeys proves the existence + of demons; the fact that certain monkeys have no tails proves that Satan + has been shorn of his glory; the weasel, which "constantly changes its + place, is a type of the man estranged from the word of God, who findeth no + rest." + </p> + <p> + The moral treatises of the time often took the form of works on natural + history, in order the more fully to exploit these religious teachings of + Nature. Thus from the book On Bees, the Dominican Thomas of Cantimpre, we + learn that "wasps persecute bees and make war on them out of natural + hatred"; and these, he tells us, typify the demons who dwell in the air + and with lightning and tempest assail and vex mankind—whereupon he + fills a long chapter with anecdotes of such demonic warfare on mortals. In + like manner his fellow-Dominican, the inquisitor Nider, in his book The + Ant Hill, teaches us that the ants in Ethiopia, which are said to have + horns and to grow so large as to look like dogs, are emblems of atrocious + heretics, like Wyclif and the Hussites, who bark and bite against the + truth; while the ants of India, which dig up gold out of the sand with + their feet and hoard it, though they make no use of it, symbolize the + fruitless toil with which the heretics dig out the gold of Holy Scripture + and hoard it in their books to no purpose. + </p> + <p> + This pious spirit not only pervaded science; it bloomed out in art, and + especially in the cathedrals. In the gargoyles overhanging the walls, in + the grotesques clambering about the towers or perched upon pinnacles, in + the dragons prowling under archways or lurking in bosses of foliage, in + the apocalyptic beasts carved upon the stalls of the choir, stained into + the windows, wrought into the tapestries, illuminated in the letters and + borders of psalters and missals, these marvels of creation suggested + everywhere morals from the Physiologus, the Bestiaries, and the + Exempla.(14) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (14) For the Physiologus, Bestiaries, etc., see Berger de Xivrey, +Traditions Teratologiques; also Hippeau's edition of the Bestiare de +Guillaume de Normandie, Caen, 1852, and such medieaval books of Exempla +as the Lumen Naturae; also Hoefer, Histoire de la Zoologie; also +Rambaud, Histoire de la Civilisation Francaise, Paris, 1885, vol i, pp. +368, 369; also Cardinal Pitra, preface to the Spicilegium Solismense, +Paris, 1885, passim; also Carus, Geschichte der Zoologie; and for +an admirable summary, the article Physiologus in the Encyclopedia +Britannica. In the illuminated manuscripts in the Library of Cornell +University are some very striking examples of grotesques. For admirably +illustrated articles on the Bestiaries, see Cahier and Martin, Melanges +d'Archeologie, Paris, 1851, 1852, and 1856, vol. ii of the first series, +pp. 85-232, and second series, volume on Curiosities Mysterieuses, pp. +106-164; also J. R. Allen, Early Christian Symbolism in Great Britain +and Ireland (London, 1887), lecture vi; for an exhaustive discussion of +the subject, see Das Thierbuch des normannischen Dichters Guillaume le +Clerc, herausgegeben von Reinisch, Leipsic, 1890; and for an Italian +examlpe, Goldstaub and Wendriner, Ein Tosco-Venezianischer Bestiarius, +Halle, 1892, where is given, on pp. 369-371, a very pious but very +comical tradition regarding the beaver, hardly mentionable to ears +polite. For Friar Bartholomew, see (besides his book itself) Medieval +Lore, edited by Robert Steele, London, 1893, pp. 118-138. +</pre> + <p> + Here and there among men who were free from church control we have work of + a better sort. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries Abd Allatif made + observations upon the natural history of Egypt which showed a truly + scientific spirit, and the Emperor Frederick II attempted to promote a + more fruitful study of Nature; but one of these men was abhorred as a + Mussulman and the other as an infidel. Far more in accordance with the + spirit of the time was the ecclesiastic Giraldus Cambrensis, whose book on + the topography of Ireland bestows much attention upon the animals of the + island, and rarely fails to make each contribute an appropriate moral. For + example, he says that in Ireland "eagles live for so many ages that they + seem to contend with eternity itself; so also the saints, having put off + the old man and put on the new, obtain the blessed fruit of everlasting + life." Again, he tells us: "Eagles often fly so high that their wings are + scorched by the sun; so those who in the Holy Scriptures strive to unravel + the deep and hidden secrets of the heavenly mysteries, beyond what is + allowed, fall below, as if the wings of the presumptuous imaginations on + which they are borne were scorched." + </p> + <p> + In one of the great men of the following century appeared a gleam of + healthful criticism: Albert the Great, in his work on the animals, + dissents from the widespread belief that certain birds spring from trees + and are nourished by the sap, and also from the theory that some are + generated in the sea from decaying wood. + </p> + <p> + But it required many generations for such scepticism to produce much + effect, and we find among the illustrations in an edition of Mandeville + published just before the Reformation not only careful accounts but + pictured representations both of birds and of beasts produced in the fruit + of trees.(15) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (15) For Giraldus Cambrensis, see the edition in the Bohn Library, +London, 1863, p. 30; for the Abd Allatif and Frederick II, see Hoefer, +as above; for Albertus Magnus, see the De Animalibus, lib. xxiii; for +the illustrations in Mandeville, see the Strasburg edition, 1484; +for the history of the myth of the tree which produces birds, see Max +Muller's lectures on the Science of Language, second series, lect. xii. +</pre> + <p> + This general employment of natural science for pious purposes went on + after the Reformation. Luther frequently made this use of it, and his + example controlled his followers. In 1612, Wolfgang Franz, Professor of + Theology at Luther's university, gave to the world his sacred history of + animals, which went through many editions. It contained a very ingenious + classification, describing "natural dragons," which have three rows of + teeth to each jaw, and he piously adds, "the principal dragon is the + Devil." + </p> + <p> + Near the end of the same century, Father Kircher, the great Jesuit + professor at Rome, holds back the sceptical current, insists upon the + orthodox view, and represents among the animals entering the ark sirens + and griffins. + </p> + <p> + Yet even among theologians we note here and there a sceptical spirit in + natural science. Early in the same seventeenth century Eugene Roger + published his Travels in Palestine. As regards the utterances of Scripture + he is soundly orthodox: he prefaces his work with a map showing, among + other important points referred to in biblical history, the place where + Samson slew a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass, the cavern + which Adam and Eve inhabited after their expulsion from paradise, the spot + where Balaam's ass spoke, the place where Jacob wrestled with the angel, + the steep place down which the swine possessed of devils plunged into the + sea, the position of the salt statue which was once Lot's wife, the place + at sea where Jonah was swallowed by the whale, and "the exact spot where + St. Peter caught one hundred and fifty-three fishes." + </p> + <p> + As to natural history, he describes and discusses with great theological + acuteness the basilisk. He tells us that the animal is about a foot and a + half long, is shaped like a crocodile, and kills people with a single + glance. The one which he saw was dead, fortunately for him, since in the + time of Pope Leo IV—as he tells us—one appeared in Rome and + killed many people by merely looking at them; but the Pope destroyed it + with his prayers and the sign of the cross. He informs us that Providence + has wisely and mercifully protected man by requiring the monster to cry + aloud two or three times whenever it leaves its den, and that the divine + wisdom in creation is also shown by the fact that the monster is obliged + to look its victim in the eye, and at a certain fixed distance, before its + glance can penetrate the victim's brain and so pass to his heart. He also + gives a reason for supposing that the same divine mercy has provided that + the crowing of a cock will kill the basilisk. + </p> + <p> + Yet even in this good and credulous missionary we see the influence of + Bacon and the dawn of experimental science; for, having been told many + stories regarding the salamander, he secured one, placed it alive upon the + burning coals, and reports to us that the legends concerning its power to + live in the fire are untrue. He also tried experiments with the chameleon, + and found that the stories told of it were to be received with much + allowance: while, then, he locks up his judgment whenever he discusses the + letter of Scripture, he uses his mind in other things much after the + modern method. + </p> + <p> + In the second half of the same century Hottinger, in his Theological + Examination of the History of Creation, breaks from the belief in the + phoenix; but his scepticism is carefully kept within the limits imposed by + Scripture. He avows his doubts, first, "because God created the animals in + couples, while the phoenix is represented as a single, unmated creature"; + secondly, "because Noah, when he entered the ark, brought the animals in + by sevens, while there were never so many individuals of the phoenix + species"; thirdly, because "no man is known who dares assert that he has + ever seen this bird"; fourthly, because "those who assert there is a + phoenix differ among themselves." + </p> + <p> + In view of these attacks on the salamander and the phoenix, we are not + surprised to find, before the end of the century, scepticism regarding the + basilisk: the eminent Prof. Kirchmaier, at the University of Wittenberg, + treats phoenix and basilisk alike as old wives' fables. As to the phoenix, + he denies its existence, not only because Noah took no such bird into the + ark, but also because, as he pithily remarks, "birds come from eggs, not + from ashes." But the unicorn he can not resign, nor will he even concede + that the unicorn is a rhinoceros; he appeals to Job and to Marco Polo to + prove that this animal, as usually conceived, really exists, and says, + "Who would not fear to deny the existence of the unicorn, since Holy + Scripture names him with distinct praises?" As to the other great animals + mentioned in Scripture, he is so rationalistic as to admit that behemoth + was an elephant and leviathan a whale. + </p> + <p> + But these germs of a fruitful scepticism grew, and we soon find Dannhauer + going a step further and declaring his disbelief even in the unicorn, + insisting that it was a rhinoceros—only that and nothing more. + Still, the main current continued strongly theological. In 1712 Samuel + Bochart published his great work upon the animals of Holy Scripture. As + showing its spirit we may take the titles of the chapters on the horse: + </p> + <p> + "Chapter VI. Of the Hebrew Name of the Horse." + </p> + <p> + "Chapter VII. Of the Colours of the Six Horses in Zechariah." + </p> + <p> + "Chapter VIII. Of the Horses in Job." + </p> + <p> + "Chapter IX. Of Solomon's Horses, and of the Texts wherein the Writers + praise the Excellence of Horses." + </p> + <p> + "Chapter X. Of the Consecrated Horses of the Sun." + </p> + <p> + Among the other titles of chapters are such as: Of Balaam's Ass; Of the + Thousand Philistines slain by Samson with the Jawbone of an Ass; Of the + Golden Calves of Aaron and Jeroboam; Of the Bleating, Milk, Wool, External + and Internal Parts of Sheep mentioned in Scripture; Of Notable Things told + regarding Lions in Scripture; Of Noah's Dove and of the Dove which + appeared at Christ's Baptism. Mixed up in the book, with the principal + mass drawn from Scripture, were many facts and reasonings taken from + investigations by naturalists; but all were permeated by the theological + spirit.(16) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (16) For Franz and Kircher, see Perrier, La Philosophie Zoologique avant +Darwin, 1884, p. 29; for Roger, see his La Terre Saincte, Paris, 1664, +pp. 89-92, 130, 218, etc.; for Hottinger, see his Historiae +Creatonis Examen theologico-philologicum, Heidelberg, 1659, lib. +vi, quaest lxxxiii; for Kirchmaier, see his Disputationes Zoologicae +(published collectively after his death), Jena, 1736; for Dannhauer, see +his Disputationes Theologicae, Leipsic, 1707, p. 14; for Bochart, see +his Hierozoikon, sive De Animalibus Sacre Scripturae, Leyden, 1712. +</pre> + <p> + The inquiry into Nature having thus been pursued nearly two thousand years + theologically, we find by the middle of the sixteenth century some + promising beginnings of a different method—the method of inquiry + into Nature scientifically—the method which seeks not plausibilities + but facts. At that time Edward Wotton led the way in England and Conrad + Gesner on the Continent, by observations widely extended, carefully noted, + and thoughtfully classified. + </p> + <p> + This better method of interrogating Nature soon led to the formation of + societies for the same purpose. In 1560 was founded an Academy for the + Study of Nature at Naples, but theologians, becoming alarmed, suppressed + it, and for nearly one hundred years there was no new combined effort of + that sort, until in 1645 began the meetings in London of what was + afterward the Royal Society. Then came the Academy of Sciences in France, + and the Accademia del Cimento in Italy; others followed in all parts of + the world, and a great new movement was begun. + </p> + <p> + Theologians soon saw a danger in this movement. In Italy, Prince Leopold + de' Medici, a protector of the Florentine Academy, was bribed with a + cardinal's hat to neglect it, and from the days of Urban VIII to Pius IX a + similar spirit was there shown. In France, there were frequent + ecclesiastical interferences, of which Buffon's humiliation for stating a + simple scientific truth was a noted example. In England, Protestantism was + at first hardly more favourable toward the Royal Society, and the great + Dr. South denounced it in his sermons as irreligious. + </p> + <p> + Fortunately, one thing prevented an open breach between theology and + science: while new investigators had mainly given up the medieval method + so dear to the Church, they had very generally retained the conception of + direct creation and of design throughout creation—a design having as + its main purpose the profit, instruction, enjoyment, and amusement of man. + </p> + <p> + On this the naturally opposing tendencies of theology and science were + compromised. Science, while somewhat freed from its old limitations, + became the handmaid of theology in illustrating the doctrine of creative + design, and always with apparent deference to the Chaldean and other + ancient myths and legends embodied in the Hebrew sacred books. + </p> + <p> + About the middle of the seventeenth century came a great victory of the + scientific over the theologic method. At that time Francesco Redi + published the results of his inquiries into the doctrine of spontaneous + generation. For ages a widely accepted doctrine had been that water, + filth, and carrion had received power from the Creator to generate worms, + insects, and a multitude of the smaller animals; and this doctrine had + been especially welcomed by St. Augustine and many of the fathers, since + it relieved the Almighty of making, Adam of naming, and Noah of living in + the ark with these innumerable despised species. But to this fallacy Redi + put an end. By researches which could not be gainsaid, he showed that + every one of these animals came from an egg; each, therefore, must be the + lineal descendant of an animal created, named, and preserved from "the + beginning." + </p> + <p> + Similar work went on in England, but under more distinctly theological + limitations. In the same seventeenth century a very famous and popular + English book was published by the naturalist John Ray, a fellow of the + Royal Society, who produced a number of works on plants, fishes, and + birds; but the most widely read of all was entitled The Wisdom of God + manifested in the Works of Creation. Between the years 1691 and 1827 it + passed through nearly twenty editions. + </p> + <p> + Ray argued the goodness and wisdom of God from the adaptation of the + animals not only to man's uses but to their own lives and surroundings. + </p> + <p> + In the first years of the eighteenth century Dr. Nehemiah Grew, of the + Royal Society, published his Cosmologia Sacra to refute anti-scriptural + opinions by producing evidences of creative design. Discussing "the ends + of Providence," he says, "A crane, which is scurvy meat, lays but two eggs + in the year, but a pheasant and partridge, both excellent meat, lay and + hatch fifteen or twenty." He points to the fact that "those of value which + lay few at a time sit the oftener, as the woodcock and the dove." He + breaks decidedly from the doctrine that noxious things in Nature are + caused by sin, and shows that they, too, are useful; that, "if nettles + sting, it is to secure an excellent medicine for children and cattle"; + that, "if the bramble hurts man, it makes all the better hedge"; and that, + "if it chances to prick the owner, it tears the thief." "Weasels, kites, + and other hurtful animals induce us to watchfulness; thistles and moles, + to good husbandry; lice oblige us to cleanliness in our bodies, spiders in + our houses, and the moth in our clothes." This very optimistic view, + triumphing over the theological theory of noxious animals and plants as + effects of sin, which prevailed with so much force from St. Augustine to + Wesley, was developed into nobler form during the century by various + thinkers, and especially by Archdeacon Paley, whose Natural Theology + exercised a powerful influence down to recent times. The same tendency + appeared in other countries, though various philosophers showed weak + points in the argument, and Goethe made sport of it in a noted verse, + praising the forethought of the Creator in foreordaining the cork tree to + furnish stoppers for wine-bottles. + </p> + <p> + Shortly before the middle of the nineteenth century the main movement + culminated in the Bridgewater Treatises. Pursuant to the will of the + eighth Earl of Bridgewater, the President of the Royal Society selected + eight persons, each to receive a thousand pounds sterling for writing and + publishing a treatise on the "power, wisdom, and goodness of God, as + manifested in the creation." Of these, the leading essays in regard to + animated Nature were those of Thomas Chalmers, on The Adaptation of + External Nature to the Moral and Intellectual Condition of Man; of Sir + Charles Bell, on The Hand as evincing Design; of Roget, on Animal and + Vegetable Physiology with reference to Natural Theology; and of Kirby, on + The Habits and Instincts of Animals with reference to Natural Theology. + </p> + <p> + Besides these there were treatises by Whewell, Buckland, Kidd, and Prout. + The work was well done. It was a marked advance on all that had appeared + before, in matter, method, and spirit. Looking back upon it now we can see + that it was provisional, but that it was none the less fruitful in truth, + and we may well remember Darwin's remark on the stimulating effect of + mistaken THEORIES, as compared with the sterilizing effect of mistaken + OBSERVATIONS: mistaken observations lead men astray, mistaken theories + suggest true theories. + </p> + <p> + An effort made in so noble a spirit certainly does not deserve the + ridicule that, in our own day, has sometimes been lavished upon it. + Curiously, indeed, one of the most contemptuous of these criticisms has + been recently made by one of the most strenuous defenders of orthodoxy. No + less eminent a standard-bearer of the faith than the Rev. Prof. Zoeckler + says of this movement to demonstrate creative purpose and design, and of + the men who took part in it, "The earth appeared in their representation + of it like a great clothing shop and soup kitchen, and God as a glorified + rationalistic professor." Such a statement as this is far from just to the + conceptions of such men as Butler, Paley, and Chalmers, no matter how + fully the thinking world has now outlived them.(17) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (17) For a very valuable and interesting study on the old idea of the +generation of insects from carrion, see Osten-Sacken, on the Oxen-born +Bees of the Ancients, Heidelberg, 1894; for Ray, see the work cited, +London, 1827, p. 153; for Grew, see Cosmologia Sacra, or a Discourse on +the Universe, as it is the Creature and Kingdom of God; chiefly written +to demonstrate the Truth and Excellency of the Bible, by Dr. Nehemiah +Grew, Fellow of the College of Physicians and of the Royal Society of +London, 1701; for Paley and the Bridgewater Treatises, see the usual +editions; also Lange, History of Rationalism. Goethe's couplet ran as +follows: +</pre> + <p> + "Welche Verehrung verdient der Weltenerschopfer, der Gnadig, Als er den + Korkbaum erschuf, gleich auch die Stopfel erfand." + </p> + <p> + For the quotation from Zoeckler, see his work already cited, vol. ii, pp. + 74, 440. + </p> + <p> + But, noble as the work of these men was, the foundation of fact on which + they reared it became evidently more and more insecure. For as far back as + the seventeenth century acute theologians had begun to discern + difficulties more serious than any that had before confronted them. More + and more it was seen that the number of different species was far greater + than the world had hitherto imagined. Greater and greater had become the + old difficulty in conceiving that, of these innumerable species, each had + been specially created by the Almighty hand; that each had been brought + before Adam by the Almighty to be named; and that each, in couples or in + sevens, had been gathered by Noah into the ark. But the difficulties thus + suggested were as nothing compared to those raised by the DISTRIBUTION of + animals. + </p> + <p> + Even in the first days of the Church this had aroused serious thought, and + above all in the great mind of St. Augustine. In his City of God he had + stated the difficulty as follows: "But there is a question about all these + kinds of beasts, which are neither tamed by man, nor spring from the earth + like frogs, such as wolves and others of that sort,.... as to how they + could find their way to the islands after that flood which destroyed every + living thing not preserved in the ark.... Some, indeed, might be thought + to reach islands by swimming, in case these were very near; but some + islands are so remote from continental lands that it does not seem + possible that any creature could reach them by swimming. It is not an + incredible thing, either, that some animals may have been captured by men + and taken with them to those lands which they intended to inhabit, in + order that they might have the pleasure of hunting; and it can not be + denied that the transfer may have been accomplished through the agency of + angels, commanded or allowed to perform this labour by God." + </p> + <p> + But this difficulty had now assumed a magnitude of which St. Augustine + never dreamed. Most powerful of all agencies to increase it were the + voyages of Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Magellan, Amerigo Vespucci, and other + navigators of the period of discovery. Still more serious did it become as + the great islands of the southern seas were explored. Every navigator + brought home tidings of new species of animals and of races of men living + in parts of the world where the theologians, relying on the statement of + St. Paul that the gospel had gone into all lands, had for ages declared + there could be none; until finally it overtaxed even the theological + imagination to conceive of angels, in obedience to the divine command, + distributing the various animals over the earth, dropping the megatherium + in South America, the archeopteryx in Europe, the ornithorhynchus in + Australia, and the opossum in North America. + </p> + <p> + The first striking evidence of this new difficulty was shown by the + eminent Jesuit missionary, Joseph Acosta. In his Natural and Moral History + of the Indies, published in 1590, he proved himself honest and lucid. + Though entangled in most of the older scriptural views, he broke away from + many; but the distribution of animals gave him great trouble. Having shown + the futility of St. Augustine's other explanations, he quaintly asks: "Who + can imagine that in so long a voyage men woulde take the paines to carrie + Foxes to Peru, especially that kinde they call 'Acias,' which is the + filthiest I have seene? Who woulde likewise say that they have carried + Tygers and Lyons? Truly it were a thing worthy the laughing at to thinke + so. It was sufficient, yea, very much, for men driven against their willes + by tempest, in so long and unknowne a voyage, to escape with their owne + lives, without busying themselves to carrie Woolves and Foxes, and to + nourish them at sea." + </p> + <p> + It was under the impression made by this new array of facts that in 1667 + Abraham Milius published at Geneva his book on The Origin of Animals and + the Migration of Peoples. This book shows, like that of Acosta, the shock + and strain to which the discovery of America subjected the received + theological scheme of things. It was issued with the special approbation + of the Bishop of Salzburg, and it indicates the possibility that a + solution of the whole trouble may be found in the text, "Let the earth + bring forth the living creature after his kind." Milius goes on to show + that the ancient philosophers agree with Moses, and that "the earth and + the waters, and especially the heat of the sun and of the genial sky, + together with that slimy and putrid quality which seems to be inherent in + the soil, may furnish the origin for fishes, terrestrial animals, and + birds." On the other hand, he is very severe against those who imagine + that man can have had the same origin with animals. But the subject with + which Milius especially grapples is the DISTRIBUTION of animals. He is + greatly exercised by the many species found in America and in remote + islands of the ocean—species entirely unknown in the other + continents—and of course he is especially troubled by the fact that + these species existing in those exceedingly remote parts of the earth do + not exist in the neighbourhood of Mount Ararat. He confesses that to + explain the distribution of animals is the most difficult part of the + problem. If it be urged that birds could reach America by flying and + fishes by swimming, he asks, "What of the beasts which neither fly nor + swim?" Yet even as to the birds he asks, "Is there not an infinite variety + of winged creatures who fly so slowly and heavily, and have such a horror + of the water, that they would not even dare trust themselves to fly over a + wide river?" As to fishes, he says, "They are very averse to wandering + from their native waters," and he shows that there are now reported many + species of American and East Indian fishes entirely unknown on the other + continents, whose presence, therefore, can not be explained by any theory + of natural dispersion. + </p> + <p> + Of those who suggest that land animals may have been dispersed over the + earth by the direct agency of man for his use or pleasure he asks: "Who + would like to get different sorts of lions, bears, tigers, and other + ferocious and noxious creatures on board ship? who would trust himself + with them? and who would wish to plant colonies of such creatures in new, + desirable lands?" + </p> + <p> + His conclusion is that plants and animals take their origin in the lands + wherein they are found; an opinion which he supports by quoting from the + two narrations in Genesis passages which imply generative force in earth + and water. + </p> + <p> + But in the eighteenth century matters had become even worse for the + theological view. To meet the difficulty the eminent Benedictine, Dom + Calmet, in his Commentary, expressed the belief that all the species of a + genus had originally formed one species, and he dwelt on this view as one + which enabled him to explain the possibility of gathering all animals into + the ark. This idea, dangerous as it was to the fabric of orthodoxy, and + involving a profound separation from the general doctrine of the Church, + seems to have been abroad among thinking men, for we find in the latter + half of the same century even Linnaeus inclining to consider it. It was + time, indeed, that some new theological theory be evolved; the great + Linnaeus himself, in spite of his famous declaration favouring the fixity + of species, had dealt a death-blow to the old theory. In his Systema + Naturae, published in the middle of the eighteenth century, he had + enumerated four thousand species of animals, and the difficulties involved + in the naming of each of them by Adam and in bringing them together in the + ark appeared to all thinking men more and more insurmountable. + </p> + <p> + What was more embarrassing, the number of distinct species went on + increasing rapidly, indeed enormously, until, as an eminent zoological + authority of our own time has declared, "for every one of the species + enumerated by Linnaeus, more than fifty kinds are known to the naturalist + of to-day, and the number of species still unknown doubtless far exceeds + the list of those recorded." + </p> + <p> + Already there were premonitions of the strain made upon Scripture by + requiring a hundred and sixty distinct miraculous interventions of the + Creator to produce the hundred and sixty species of land shells found in + the little island of Madeira alone, and fourteen hundred distinct + interventions to produce the actual number of distinct species of a single + well-known shell. + </p> + <p> + Ever more and more difficult, too, became the question of the geographical + distribution of animals. As new explorations were made in various parts of + the world, this danger to the theological view went on increasing. The + sloths in South America suggested painful questions: How could animals so + sluggish have got away from the neighbourhood of Mount Ararat so + completely and have travelled so far? + </p> + <p> + The explorations in Australia and neighbouring islands made matters still + worse, for there was found in those regions a whole realm of animals + differing widely from those of other parts of the earth. + </p> + <p> + The problem before the strict theologians became, for example, how to + explain the fact that the kangaroo can have been in the ark and be now + only found in Australia: his saltatory powers are indeed great, but how + could he by any series of leaps have sprung across the intervening + mountains, plains, and oceans to that remote continent? and, if the theory + were adopted that at some period a causeway extended across the vast chasm + separating Australia from the nearest mainland, why did not lions, tigers, + camels, and camelopards force or find their way across it? + </p> + <p> + The theological theory, therefore, had by the end of the eighteenth + century gone to pieces. The wiser theologians waited; the unwise indulged + in exhortations to "root out the wicked heart of unbelief," in + denunciation of "science falsely so called," and in frantic declarations + that "the Bible is true"—by which they meant that the limited + understanding of it which they had happened to inherit is true. + </p> + <p> + By the middle of the nineteenth century the whole theological theory of + creation—though still preached everywhere as a matter of form—was + clearly seen by all thinking men to be hopelessly lost: such strong men as + Cardinal Wiseman in the Roman Church, Dean Buckland in the Anglican, and + Hugh Miller in the Scottish Church, made heroic efforts to save something + from it, but all to no purpose. That sturdy Teutonic and Anglo-Saxon + honesty, which is the best legacy of the Middle Ages to Christendom, + asserted itself in the old strongholds of theological thought, the + universities. Neither the powerful logic of Bishop Butler nor the nimble + reasoning of Archdeacon Paley availed. Just as the line of astronomical + thinkers from Copernicus to Newton had destroyed the old astronomy, in + which the earth was the centre, and the Almighty sitting above the + firmament the agent in moving the heavenly bodies about it with his own + hands, so now a race of biological thinkers had destroyed the old idea of + a Creator minutely contriving and fashioning all animals to suit the needs + and purposes of man. They had developed a system of a very different sort, + and this we shall next consider.(18) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (18) For Acosta, see his Historia Natural y moral de las Indias, +Seville, 1590—the quaint English translation is of London, 1604; for +Abraham Milius, see his De Origine Animalium et Migratione Popularum, +Geneva, 1667; also Kosmos, 1877, H. I, S. 36; for Linnaeus's declaration +regarding species, see the Philosophia Botanica, 99, 157; for Calmet and +Linnaeus, see Zoeckler, vol. ii, p. 237. As to the enormously increasing +numbers of species in zoology and botany, see President D. S. Jordan, +Science Sketches, pp. 176, 177; also for pithy statement, Laing's +Problems of the Future, chap. vi. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III. THEOLOGICAL AND SCIENTIFIC THEORIES, OF AN EVOLUTION IN ANIMATED + </h2> + <p> + NATURE. + </p> + <p> + We have seen, thus far, how there came into the thinking of mankind upon + the visible universe and its inhabitants the idea of a creation virtually + instantaneous and complete, and of a Creator in human form with human + attributes, who spoke matter into existence literally by the exercise of + his throat and lips, or shaped and placed it with his hands and fingers. + </p> + <p> + We have seen that this view came from far; that it existed in the + Chaldaeo-Babylonian and Egyptian civilizations, and probably in others of + the earliest date known to us; that its main features passed thence into + the sacred books of the Hebrews and then into the early Christian Church, + by whose theologians it was developed through the Middle Ages and + maintained during the modern period. + </p> + <p> + But, while this idea was thus developed by a succession of noble and + thoughtful men through thousands of years, another conception, to all + appearance equally ancient, was developed, sometimes in antagonism to it, + sometimes mingled with it—the conception of all living beings as + wholly or in part the result of a growth process—of an evolution. + </p> + <p> + This idea, in various forms, became a powerful factor in nearly all the + greater ancient theologies and philosophies. For very widespread among the + early peoples who attained to much thinking power was a conception that, + in obedience to the divine fiat, a watery chaos produced the earth, and + that the sea and land gave birth to their inhabitants. + </p> + <p> + This is clearly seen in those records of Chaldaeo-Babylonian thought + deciphered in these latter years, to which reference has already been + made. In these we have a watery chaos which, under divine action, brings + forth the earth and its inhabitants; first the sea animals and then the + land animals—the latter being separated into three kinds, + substantially as recorded afterward in the Hebrew accounts. At the various + stages in the work the Chaldean Creator pronounces it "beautiful," just as + the Hebrew Creator in our own later account pronounces it "good." + </p> + <p> + In both accounts there is placed over the whole creation a solid, concave + firmament; in both, light is created first, and the heavenly bodies are + afterward placed "for signs and for seasons"; in both, the number seven is + especially sacred, giving rise to a sacred division of time and to much + else. It may be added that, with many other features in the Hebrew legends + evidently drawn from the Chaldean, the account of the creation in each is + followed by a legend regarding "the fall of man" and a deluge, many + details of which clearly passed in slightly modified form from the + Chaldean into the Hebrew accounts. + </p> + <p> + It would have been a miracle indeed if these primitive conceptions, + wrought out with so much poetic vigour in that earlier civilization on the + Tigris and Euphrates, had failed to influence the Hebrews, who during the + most plastic periods of their development were under the tutelage of their + Chaldean neighbours. Since the researches of Layard, George Smith, Oppert, + Schrader, Jensen, Sayce, and their compeers, there is no longer a + reasonable doubt that this ancient view of the world, elaborated if not + originated in that earlier civilization, came thence as a legacy to the + Hebrews, who wrought it in a somewhat disjointed but mainly monotheistic + form into the poetic whole which forms one of the most precious treasures + of ancient thought preserved in the book of Genesis. + </p> + <p> + Thus it was that, while the idea of a simple material creation literally + by the hands and fingers or voice of the Creator became, as we have seen, + the starting-point of a powerful stream of theological thought, and while + this stream was swollen from age to age by contributions from the fathers, + doctors, and learned divines of the Church, Catholic and Protestant, there + was poured into it this lesser current, always discernible and at times + clearly separated from it—a current of belief in a process of + evolution. + </p> + <p> + The Rev. Prof. Sayce, of Oxford, than whom no English-speaking scholar + carries more weight in a matter of this kind, has recently declared his + belief that the Chaldaeo-Babylonian theory was the undoubted source of the + similar theory propounded by the Ionic philosopher Anaximander—the + Greek thinkers deriving this view from the Babylonians through the + Phoenicians; he also allows that from the same source its main features + were adopted into both the accounts given in the first of our sacred + books, and in this general view the most eminent Christian Assyriologists + concur. + </p> + <p> + It is true that these sacred accounts of ours contradict each other. In + that part of the first or Elohistic account given in the first chapter of + Genesis the WATERS bring forth fishes, marine animals, and birds (Genesis, + i, 20); but in that part of the second or Jehovistic account given in the + second chapter of Genesis both the land animals and birds are declared to + have been created not out of the water, but "OUT OF THE GROUND" (Genesis, + ii, 19). + </p> + <p> + The dialectic skill of the fathers was easily equal to explaining away + this contradiction; but the old current of thought, strengthened by both + these legends, arrested their attention, and, passing through the minds of + a succession of the greatest men of the Church, influenced theological + opinion deeply, if not widely, for ages, in favour of an evolution theory. + </p> + <p> + But there was still another ancient source of evolution ideas. Thoughtful + men of the early civilizations which were developed along the great rivers + in the warmer regions of the earth noted how the sun-god as he rose in his + fullest might caused the water and the rich soil to teem with the lesser + forms of life. In Egypt, especially, men saw how under this divine power + the Nile slime brought forth "creeping things innumerable." Hence mainly + this ancient belief that the animals and man were produced by lifeless + matter at the divine command, "in the beginning," was supplemented by the + idea that some of the lesser animals, especially the insects, were + produced by a later evolution, being evoked after the original creation + from various sources, but chiefly from matter in a state of decay. + </p> + <p> + This crude, early view aided doubtless in giving germs of a better + evolution theory to the early Greeks. Anaximander, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, + and, greatest of all, Aristotle, as we have seen, developed them, making + their way at times by guesses toward truths since established by + observation. Aristotle especially, both by speculation and observation, + arrived at some results which, had Greek freedom of thought continued, + might have brought the world long since to its present plane of biological + knowledge; for he reached something like the modern idea of a succession + of higher organizations from lower, and made the fruitful suggestion of "a + perfecting principle" in Nature. + </p> + <p> + With the coming in of Christian theology this tendency toward a yet truer + theory of evolution was mainly stopped, but the old crude view remained, + and as a typical example of it we may note the opinion of St. Basil the + Great in the fourth century. Discussing the work of creation, he declares + that, at the command of God, "the waters were gifted with productive + power"; "from slime and muddy places frogs, flies, and gnats came into + being"; and he finally declares that the same voice which gave this energy + and quality of productiveness to earth and water shall be similarly + efficacious until the end of the world. St. Gregory of Nyssa held a + similar view. + </p> + <p> + This idea of these great fathers of the Eastern Church took even stronger + hold on the great father of the Western Church. For St. Augustine, so + fettered usually by the letter of the sacred text, broke from his own + famous doctrine as to the acceptance of Scripture and spurned the + generally received belief of a creative process like that by which a + toymaker brings into existence a box of playthings. In his great treatise + on Genesis he says: "To suppose that God formed man from the dust with + bodily hands is very childish.... God neither formed man with bodily hands + nor did he breathe upon him with throat and lips." + </p> + <p> + St. Augustine then suggests the adoption of the old emanation or evolution + theory, shows that "certain very small animals may not have been created + on the fifth and sixth days, but may have originated later from putrefying + matter," argues that, even if this be so, God is still their creator, + dwells upon such a potential creation as involved in the actual creation, + and speaks of animals "whose numbers the after-time unfolded." + </p> + <p> + In his great treatise on the Trinity—the work to which he devoted + the best thirty years of his life—we find the full growth of this + opinion. He develops at length the view that in the creation of living + beings there was something like a growth—that God is the ultimate + author, but works through secondary causes; and finally argues that + certain substances are endowed by God with the power of producing certain + classes of plants and animals.(19) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (19) For the Chaldean view of creation, see George Smith, Chaldean +Account of Genesis, New York, 1876, pp. 14,15, and 64-86; also Lukas, as +above; also Sayce, Religion of the Ancient Babylonians, Hibbert Lectures +for 1887, pp. 371 and elsewhere; as to the fall of man, Tower of Babel, +sacredness of the number seven, etc., see also Delitzsch, appendix to +the German translation of Smith, pp. 305 et seq.; as to the almost exact +adoption of the Chaldean legends into the Hebrew sacred account, see +all these, as also Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das Alte +Testament, Giessen, 1883, early chapters; also article Babylonia in +the Encyclopedia Britannica; as to similar approval of creation by the +Creator in both accounts, see George Smith, p. 73; as to the migration +of the Babylonian legends to the Hebrews, see Schrader, Whitehouse's +translation, pp. 44,45; as to the Chaldaean belief ina solid firmament, +while Schrader in 1883 thought it not proved, Jensen in 1890 has found +it clearly expresses—see his Kosmologie der Babylonier, pp.9 et seq., +also pp. 304-306, and elsewhere. Dr. Lukas in 1893 also fully accepts +this view of a Chaldean record of a "firmament"—see Kosmologie, pp. +43, etc.; see also Maspero and Sayce, the Dawn of Civilization, and for +crude early ideas of evolution in Egypt, see ibid., pp. 156 et seq. +</pre> + <p> + For the seven-day week among the Chaldeans and rest on the seventh day, + and the proof that even the name "Sabbath" is of Chaldean origin, see + Delitzsch, Beiga-ben zu Smith's Chald. Genesis, pp. 300 and 306; also + Schrader; for St. Basil, see Hexaemeron and Homilies vii-ix; but for the + steadfastness of Basil's view in regard to the immutability of species, + see a Catholic writer on evolution and Faith in the Dublin Review for + July, 1871, p. 13; for citations of St. Augustine on Genesis, see the De + Genesi contra Manichoeos, lib. ii, cap. 14, in Migne, xxxiv, 188,—lib. + v, cap. 5 and cap. 23,—and lib vii, cap I; for the citations from + his work on the Trinity, see his De Trinitate, lib. iii, cap. 8 and 9, in + Migne, xlii, 877, 878; for the general subject very fully and adequately + presented, see Osborn, From the Greeks to Darwin, New York, 1894, chaps. + ii and iii. + </p> + <p> + This idea of a development by secondary causes apart from the original + creation was helped in its growth by a theological exigency. More and + more, as the organic world was observed, the vast multitude of petty + animals, winged creatures, and "creeping things" was felt to be a strain + upon the sacred narrative. More and more it became difficult to reconcile + the dignity of the Almighty with his work in bringing each of these + creatures before Adam to be named; or to reconcile the human limitations + of Adam with his work in naming "every living creature"; or to reconcile + the dimensions of Noah's ark with the space required for preserving all of + them, and the food of all sorts necessary for their sustenance, whether + they were admitted by twos, as stated in one scriptural account, or by + sevens, as stated in the other. + </p> + <p> + The inadequate size of the ark gave especial trouble. Origen had dealt + with it by suggesting that the cubit was six times greater than had been + supposed. Bede explained Noah's ability to complete so large a vessel by + supposing that he worked upon it during a hundred years; and, as to the + provision of food taken into it, he declared that there was no need of a + supply for more than one day, since God could throw the animals into a + deep sleep or otherwise miraculously make one day's supply sufficient; he + also lessened the strain on faith still more by diminishing the number of + animals taken into the ark—supporting his view upon Augustine's + theory of the later development of insects out of carrion. + </p> + <p> + Doubtless this theological necessity was among the main reasons which led + St. Isidore of Seville, in the seventh century, to incorporate this + theory, supported by St. Basil and St. Augustine, into his great + encyclopedic work which gave materials for thought on God and Nature to so + many generations. He familiarized the theological world still further with + the doctrine of secondary creation, giving such examples of it as that + "bees are generated from decomposed veal, beetles from horseflesh, + grasshoppers from mules, scorpions from crabs," and, in order to give + still stronger force to the idea of such transformations, he dwells on the + biblical account of Nebuchadnezzar, which appears to have taken strong + hold upon medieval thought in science, and he declares that other human + beings had been changed into animals, especially into swine, wolves, and + owls. + </p> + <p> + This doctrine of after-creations went on gathering strength until, in the + twelfth century, Peter Lombard, in his theological summary, The Sentences, + so powerful in moulding the thought of the Church, emphasized the + distinction between animals which spring from carrion and those which are + created from earth and water; the former he holds to have been created + "potentially" the latter "actually." + </p> + <p> + In the century following, this idea was taken up by St. Thomas Aquinas and + virtually received from him its final form. In the Summa, which remains + the greatest work of medieval thought, he accepts the idea that certain + animals spring from the decaying bodies of plants and animals, and + declares that they are produced by the creative word of God either + actually or virtually. He develops this view by saying, "Nothing was made + by God, after the six days of creation, absolutely new, but it was in some + sense included in the work of the six days"; and that "even new species, + if any appear, have existed before in certain native properties, just as + animals are produced from putrefaction." + </p> + <p> + The distinction thus developed between creation "causally" or + "potentially," and "materially" or "formally," was made much of by + commentators afterward. Cornelius a Lapide spread it by saying that + certain animals were created not "absolutely," but only "derivatively," + and this thought was still further developed three centuries later by + Augustinus Eugubinus, who tells us that, after the first creative energy + had called forth land and water, light was made by the Almighty, the + instrument of all future creation, and that the light called everything + into existence. + </p> + <p> + All this "science falsely so called," so sedulously developed by the + master minds of the Church, and yet so futile that we might almost suppose + that the great apostle, in a glow of prophetic vision, had foreseen it in + his famous condemnation, seems at this distance very harmless indeed; yet, + to many guardians of the "sacred deposit of doctrine" in the Church, even + so slight a departure from the main current of thought seemed dangerous. + It appeared to them like pressing the doctrine of secondary causes to a + perilous extent; and about the beginning of the seventeenth century we + have the eminent Spanish Jesuit and theologian Suarez denouncing it, and + declaring St. Augustine a heretic for his share in it. + </p> + <p> + But there was little danger to the older idea just then; the main + theological tendency was so strong that the world kept on as of old. + Biblical theology continued to spin its own webs out of its own bowels, + and all the lesser theological flies continued to be entangled in them; + yet here and there stronger thinkers broke loose from this entanglement + and helped somewhat to disentangle others.(20) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (20) For Bede's view of the ark and the origin of insects, see his +Hexaemeron, i and ii; for Isidore, see the Etymologiae, xi, 4, and xiii, +22; for Peter Lombard, see Sent., lib. ii, dist. xv, 4 (in Migne, +cxcii, 682); for St. Thomas Aquinas as to the laws of Nature, see Summae +Theologica, i, Quaest. lxvii, art. iv; for his discussion on Avicenna's +theory of the origin of animals, see ibid., i Quaest. lxxi, vol. i, +pp. 1184 and 1185, of Migne's edit.; for his idea as to the word of God +being the active producing principle, see ibid., i, Quaest. lxxi, art. +i; for his remarks on species, see ibid, i, Quaest. lxxii, art. i; +for his ideas on the necessity of the procreation of man, see ibid, i, +Quaest. lxxii, art. i; for the origin of animals from putrefaction, +see ibid, i, Quaest. lxxix, art. i, 3; for Cornelius a Lapide on the +derivative creation of animals, see his In Genesim Comment., cap. i, +cited by Mivart, Genesis of Species, p. 282; for a reference to Suarez's +denunciation of the view of St. Augustine, see Huxley's Essays. +</pre> + <p> + At the close of the Middle Ages, in spite of the devotion of the Reformed + Church to the letter of Scripture, the revival of learning and the great + voyages gave an atmosphere in which better thinking on the problems of + Nature began to gain strength. On all sides, in every field, men were + making discoveries which caused the general theological view to appear + more and more inadequate. + </p> + <p> + First of those who should be mentioned with reverence as beginning to + develop again that current of Greek thought which the system drawn from + our sacred books by the fathers and doctors of the Church had interrupted + for more than a thousand years, was Giordano Bruno. His utterances were + indeed vague and enigmatical, but this fault may well be forgiven him, for + he saw but too clearly what must be his reward for any more open + statements. His reward indeed came—even for his faulty utterances—when, + toward the end of the nineteenth century, thoughtful men from all parts of + the world united in erecting his statue on the spot where he had been + burned by the Roman Inquisition nearly three hundred years before. + </p> + <p> + After Bruno's death, during the first half of the seventeenth century, + Descartes seemed about to take the leadership of human thought: his + theories, however superseded now, gave a great impulse to investigation + then. His genius in promoting an evolution doctrine as regards the + mechanical formation of the solar system was great, and his mode of + thought strengthened the current of evolutionary doctrine generally; but + his constant dread of persecution, both from Catholics and Protestants, + led him steadily to veil his thoughts and even to suppress them. The + execution of Bruno had occurred in his childhood, and in the midst of his + career he had watched the Galileo struggle in all its stages. He had seen + his own works condemned by university after university under the direction + of theologians, and placed upon the Roman Index. Although he gave new and + striking arguments to prove the existence of God, and humbled himself + before the Jesuits, he was condemned by Catholics and Protestants alike. + Since Roger Bacon, perhaps, no great thinker had been so completely abased + and thwarted by theological oppression. + </p> + <p> + Near the close of the same century another great thinker, Leibnitz, though + not propounding any full doctrine on evolution, gave it an impulse by + suggesting a view contrary to the sacrosanct belief in the immutability of + species—that is, to the pious doctrine that every species in the + animal kingdom now exists as it left the hands of the Creator, the naming + process by Adam, and the door of Noah's ark. + </p> + <p> + His punishment at the hands of the Church came a few years later, when, in + 1712, the Jesuits defeated his attempt to found an Academy of Science at + Vienna. The imperial authorities covered him with honours, but the priests—ruling + in the confessionals and pulpits—would not allow him the privilege + of aiding his fellow-men to ascertain God's truths revealed in Nature. + </p> + <p> + Spinoza, Hume, and Kant may also be mentioned as among those whose + thinking, even when mistaken, might have done much to aid in the + development of a truer theory had not the theologic atmosphere of their + times been so unpropitious; but a few years after Leibnitz's death came in + France a thinker in natural science of much less influence than any of + these, who made a decided step forward. + </p> + <p> + Early in the eighteenth century Benoist de Maillet, a man of the world, + but a wide observer and close thinker upon Nature, began meditating + especially upon the origin of animal forms, and was led into the idea of + the transformation of species and so into a theory of evolution, which in + some important respects anticipated modern ideas. He definitely, though at + times absurdly, conceived the production of existing species by the + modification of their predecessors, and he plainly accepted one of the + fundamental maxims of modern geology—that the structure of the globe + must be studied in the light of the present course of Nature. + </p> + <p> + But he fell between two ranks of adversaries. On one side, the Church + authorities denounced him as a freethinker; on the other, Voltaire + ridiculed him as a devotee. Feeling that his greatest danger was from the + orthodox theologians, De Maillet endeavoured to protect himself by + disguising his name in the title of his book, and by so wording its + preface and dedication that, if persecuted, he could declare it a mere + sport of fancy; he therefore announced it as the reverie of a Hindu sage + imparted to a Christian missionary. But this strategy availed nothing: he + had allowed his Hindu sage to suggest that the days of creation named in + Genesis might be long periods of time; and this, with other ideas of + equally fearful import, was fatal. Though the book was in type in 1735, it + was not published till 1748—three years after his death. + </p> + <p> + On the other hand, the heterodox theology of Voltaire was also aroused; + and, as De Maillet had seen in the presence of fossils on high mountains a + proof that these mountains were once below the sea, Voltaire, recognising + in this an argument for the deluge of Noah, ridiculed the new thinker + without mercy. Unfortunately, some of De Maillet's vagaries lent + themselves admirably to Voltaire's sarcasm; better material for it could + hardly be conceived than the theory, seriously proposed, that the first + human being was born of a mermaid. + </p> + <p> + Hence it was that, between these two extremes of theology, De Maillet + received no recognition until, very recently, the greatest men of science + in England and France have united in giving him his due. But his work was + not lost, even in his own day; Robinet and Bonnet pushed forward + victoriously on helpful lines. + </p> + <p> + In the second half of the eighteenth century a great barrier was thrown + across this current—the authority of Linnaeus. He was the most + eminent naturalist of his time, a wide observer, a close thinker; but the + atmosphere in which he lived and moved and had his being was saturated + with biblical theology, and this permeated all his thinking. + </p> + <p> + He who visits the tomb of Linnaeus to-day, entering the beautiful + cathedral of Upsala by its southern porch, sees above it, wrought in + stone, the Hebrew legend of creation. In a series of medallions, the + Almighty—in human form—accomplishes the work of each creative + day. In due order he puts in place the solid firmament with the waters + above it, the sun, moon, and stars within it, the beasts, birds, and + plants below it, and finishes his task by taking man out of a little + hillock of "the earth beneath," and woman out of man's side. Doubtless + Linnaeus, as he went to his devotions, often smiled at this childlike + portrayal. Yet he was never able to break away from the idea it embodied. + At times, in face of the difficulties which beset the orthodox theory, he + ventured to favour some slight concessions. Toward the end of his life he + timidly advanced the hypothesis that all the species of one genus + constituted at the creation one species; and from the last edition of his + Systema Naturae he quietly left out the strongly orthodox statement of the + fixity of each species, which he had insisted upon in his earlier works. + But he made no adequate declaration. What he might expect if he openly and + decidedly sanctioned a newer view he learned to his cost; warnings came + speedily both from the Catholic and Protestant sides. + </p> + <p> + At a time when eminent prelates of the older Church were eulogizing + debauched princes like Louis XV, and using the unspeakably obscene + casuistry of the Jesuit Sanchez in the education of the priesthood as to + the relations of men to women, the modesty of the Church authorities was + so shocked by Linnaeus's proofs of a sexual system in plants that for many + years his writings were prohibited in the Papal States and in various + other parts of Europe where clerical authority was strong enough to resist + the new scientific current. Not until 1773 did one of the more + broad-minded cardinals—Zelanda—succeed in gaining permission + that Prof. Minasi should discuss the Linnaean system at Rome. + </p> + <p> + And Protestantism was quite as oppressive. In a letter to Eloius, Linnaeus + tells of the rebuke given to science by one of the great Lutheran prelates + of Sweden, Bishop Svedberg. From various parts of Europe detailed + statements had been sent to the Royal Academy of Science that water had + been turned into blood, and well-meaning ecclesiastics had seen in this an + indication of the wrath of God, certainly against the regions in which + these miracles had occurred and possibly against the whole world. A + miracle of this sort appearing in Sweden, Linnaeus looked into it + carefully and found that the reddening of the water was caused by dense + masses of minute insects. News of this explanation having reached the + bishop, he took the field against it; he denounced this scientific + discovery as "a Satanic abyss" (abyssum Satanae), and declared "The + reddening of the water is NOT natural," and "when God allows such a + miracle to take place Satan endeavours, and so do his ungodly, + self-reliant, self-sufficient, and worldly tools, to make it signify + nothing." In face of this onslaught Linnaeus retreated; he tells his + correspondent that "it is difficult to say anything in this matter," and + shields himself under the statement "It is certainly a miracle that so + many millions of creatures can be so suddenly propagated," and "it shows + undoubtedly the all-wise power of the Infinite." + </p> + <p> + The great naturalist, grown old and worn with labours for science, could + no longer resist the contemporary theology; he settled into obedience to + it, and while the modification of his early orthodox view was, as we have + seen, quietly imbedded in the final edition of his great work, he made no + special effort to impress it upon the world. To all appearance he + continued to adhere to the doctrine that all existing species had been + created by the Almighty "in the beginning," and that since "the beginning" + no new species had appeared. + </p> + <p> + Yet even his great authority could not arrest the swelling tide; more and + more vast became the number of species, more and more incomprehensible + under the old theory became the newly ascertained facts in geographical + distribution, more and more it was felt that the universe and animated + beings had come into existence by some process other than a special + creation "in the beginning," and the question was constantly pressing, "By + WHAT process?" + </p> + <p> + Throughout the whole of the eighteenth century one man was at work on + natural history who might have contributed much toward an answer to this + question: this man was Buffon. His powers of research and thought were + remarkable, and his gift in presenting results of research and thought + showed genius. He had caught the idea of an evolution in Nature by the + variation of species, and was likely to make a great advance with it; but + he, too, was made to feel the power of theology. + </p> + <p> + As long as he gave pleasing descriptions of animals the Church petted him, + but when he began to deduce truths of philosophical import the batteries + of the Sorbonne were opened upon him; he was made to know that "the sacred + deposit of truth committed to the Church" was, that "in the beginning God + made the heavens and the earth" and that "all things were made at the + beginning of the world." For his simple statement of truths in natural + science which are to-day truisms, he was, as we have seen, dragged forth + by the theological faculty, forced to recant publicly, and to print his + recantation. In this he announced, "I abandon everything in my book + respecting the formation of the earth, and generally all which may be + contrary to the narrative of Moses."(21) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (21) For Descartes and his relation to the Copernican theory, see +Saisset, Descartes et ses Precurseurs; also Fouillee, Descartes, Paris, +1893, chaps. ii and iii; also other authorities cited in my chapter +on Astronomy; for his relation to the theory of evolution, see the +Principes de Philosophie, 3eme partie, S 45. For de Maillet, see +Quatrefages, Darwin et ses Precurseurs francais, chap i, citing +D'Archiac, Paleontologie, Stratigraphie, vol. i; also, Perrier, La +Philosophie zoologique avant Darwin, chap. vi; also the admirable +article Evolution, by Huxley, in Ency. Brit. The title of De Maillet's +book is Telliamed, ou Entretiens d'un Philosophe indien avec un +Missionaire francais sur la Diminution de la Mer, 1748, 1756. For +Buffon, see the authorities previously given, also the chapter on +Geology in this work. For the resistance of both Catholic and Protestant +authorities to the Linnaean system and ideas, see Alberg, Life of +Linnaeus, London, 1888, pp. 143-147, and 237. As to the creation +medallions at the Cathedral of Upsala, it is a somewhat curious +coincidence that the present writer came upon them while visiting that +edifice during the preparation of this chapter. +</pre> + <p> + But all this triumph of the Chaldeo-Babylonian creation legends which the + Church had inherited availed but little. + </p> + <p> + For about the end of the eighteenth century fruitful suggestions and even + clear presentations of this or that part of a large evolutionary doctrine + came thick and fast, and from the most divergent quarters. Especially + remarkable were those which came from Erasmus Darwin in England, from + Maupertuis in France, from Oken in Switzerland, and from Herder, and, most + brilliantly of all, from Goethe in Germany. + </p> + <p> + Two men among these thinkers must be especially mentioned—Treviranus + in Germany and Lamarck in France; each independently of the other drew the + world more completely than ever before in this direction. + </p> + <p> + From Treviranus came, in 1802, his work on biology, and in this he gave + forth the idea that from forms of life originally simple had arisen all + higher organizations by gradual development; that every living feature has + a capacity for receiving modifications of its structure from external + influences; and that no species had become really extinct, but that each + had passed into some other species. From Lamarck came about the same time + his Researches, and a little later his Zoological Philosophy, which + introduced a new factor into the process of evolution—the action of + the animal itself in its efforts toward a development to suit new needs—and + he gave as his principal conclusions the following: + </p> + <p> + 1. Life tends to increase the volume of each living body and of all its + parts up to a limit determined by its own necessities. + </p> + <p> + 2. New wants in animals give rise to new organs. + </p> + <p> + 3. The development of these organs is in proportion to their employment. + </p> + <p> + 4. New developments may be transmitted to offspring. + </p> + <p> + His well-known examples to illustrate these views, such as that of + successive generations of giraffes lengthening their necks by stretching + them to gather high-growing foliage, and of successive generations of + kangaroos lengthening and strengthening their hind legs by the necessity + of keeping themselves erect while jumping, provoked laughter, but the very + comicality of these illustrations aided to fasten his main conclusion in + men's memories. + </p> + <p> + In both these statements, imperfect as they were, great truths were + embodied—truths which were sure to grow. + </p> + <p> + Lamarck's declaration, especially, that the development of organs is in + ratio to their employment, and his indications of the reproduction in + progeny of what is gained or lost in parents by the influence of + circumstances, entered as a most effective force into the development of + the evolution theory. + </p> + <p> + The next great successor in the apostolate of this idea of the universe + was Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. As early as 1795 he had begun to form a theory + that species are various modifications of the same type, and this theory + he developed, testing it at various stages as Nature was more and more + displayed to him. It fell to his lot to bear the brunt in a struggle + against heavy odds which lasted many years. + </p> + <p> + For the man who now took up the warfare, avowedly for science but + unconsciously for theology, was the foremost naturalist then living—Cuvier. + His scientific eminence was deserved; the highest honours of his own and + other countries were given him, and he bore them worthily. An Imperial + Councillor under Napoleon; President of the Council of Public Instruction + and Chancellor of the University under the restored Bourbons; Grand + Officer of the Legion of Honour, a Peer of France, Minister of the + Interior, and President of the Council of State under Louis Philippe; he + was eminent in all these capacities, and yet the dignity given by such + high administrative positions was as nothing compared to his leadership in + natural science. Science throughout the world acknowledged in him its + chief contemporary ornament, and to this hour his fame rightly continues. + But there was in him, as in Linnaeus, a survival of certain theological + ways of looking at the universe and certain theological conceptions of a + plan of creation; it must be said, too, that while his temperament made + him distrust new hypotheses, of which he had seen so many born and die, + his environment as a great functionary of state, honoured, admired, almost + adored by the greatest, not only in the state but in the Church, his + solicitude lest science should receive some detriment by openly resisting + the Church, which had recaptured Europe after the French Revolution, and + had made of its enemies its footstool—all these considerations led + him to oppose the new theory. Amid the plaudits, then, of the foremost + church-men he threw across the path of the evolution doctrines the whole + mass of his authority in favour of the old theory of catastrophic changes + and special creations. + </p> + <p> + Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire stoutly withstood him, braving non-recognition, + ill-treatment, and ridicule. Treviranus, afar off in his mathematical + lecture-room at Bremen, seemed simply forgotten. + </p> + <p> + But the current of evolutionary thought could not thus be checked: dammed + up for a time, it broke out in new channels and in ways and places least + expected; turned away from France, it appeared especially in England, + where great paleontologists and geologists arose whose work culminated in + that of Lyell. Specialists throughout all the world now became more + vigorous than ever, gathering facts and thinking upon them in a way which + caused the special creation theory to shrink more and more. Broader and + more full became these various rivulets, soon to unite in one great stream + of thought. + </p> + <p> + In 1813 Dr. Wells developed a theory of evolution by natural selection to + account for varieties in the human race. About 1820 Dean Herbert, eminent + as an authority in horticulture, avowed his conviction that species are + but fixed varieties. In 1831 Patrick Matthews stumbled upon and stated the + main doctrine of natural selection in evolution; and others here and + there, in Europe and America, caught an inkling of it. + </p> + <p> + But no one outside of a circle apparently uninfluential cared for these + things: the Church was serene: on the Continent it had obtained + reactionary control of courts, cabinets, and universities; in England, + Dean Cockburn was denouncing Mary Somerville and the geologists to the + delight of churchmen; and the Rev. Mellor Brown was doing the same thing + for the edification of dissenters. + </p> + <p> + In America the mild suggestions of Silliman and his compeers were met by + the protestations of the Andover theologians headed by Moses Stuart. + Neither of the great English universities, as a rule, took any notice of + the innovators save by sneers. + </p> + <p> + To this current of thought there was joined a new element when, in 1844, + Robert Chambers published his Vestiges of Creation. The book was + attractive and was widely read. In Chambers's view the several series of + animated beings, from the simplest and oldest up to the highest and most + recent, were the result of two distinct impulses, each given once and for + all time by the Creator. The first of these was an impulse imparted to + forms of life, lifting them gradually through higher grades; the second + was an impulse tending to modify organic substances in accordance with + external circumstances; in fact, the doctrine of the book was evolution + tempered by miracle—a stretching out of the creative act through all + time—a pious version of Lamarck. + </p> + <p> + Two results followed, one mirth-provoking, the other leading to serious + thought. The amusing result was that the theologians were greatly alarmed + by the book: it was loudly insisted that it promoted atheism. Looking back + along the line of thought which has since been developed, one feels that + the older theologians ought to have put up thanksgivings for Chambers's + theory, and prayers that it might prove true. The more serious result was + that it accustomed men's minds to a belief in evolution as in some form + possible or even probable. In this way it was provisionally of service. + </p> + <p> + Eight years later Herbert Spencer published an essay contrasting the + theories of creation and evolution—reasoning with great force in + favour of the latter, showing that species had undoubtedly been modified + by circumstances; but still only few and chosen men saw the significance + of all these lines of reasoning which had been converging during so many + years toward one conclusion. + </p> + <p> + On July 1, 1858, there were read before the Linnaean Society at London two + papers—one presented by Charles Darwin, the other by Alfred Russel + Wallace—and with the reading of these papers the doctrine of + evolution by natural selection was born. Then and there a fatal breach was + made in the great theological barrier of the continued fixity of species + since the creation. + </p> + <p> + The story of these papers the scientific world knows by heart: how Charles + Darwin, having been sent to the University of Cambridge to fit him for the + Anglican priesthood, left it in 1831 to go upon the scientific expedition + of the Beagle; how for five years he studied with wonderful vigour and + acuteness the problems of life as revealed on land and at sea—among + volcanoes and coral reefs, in forests and on the sands, from the tropics + to the arctic regions; how, in the Cape Verde and the Galapagos Islands, + and in Brazil, Patagonia, and Australia he interrogated Nature with + matchless persistency and skill; how he returned unheralded, quietly + settled down to his work, and soon set the world thinking over its first + published results, such as his book on Coral Reefs, and the monograph on + the Cirripedia; and, finally, how he presented his paper, and followed it + up with treatises which made him one of the great leaders in the history + of human thought. + </p> + <p> + The scientific world realizes, too, more and more, the power of character + shown by Darwin in all this great career; the faculty of silence, the + reserve of strength seen in keeping his great thought—his idea of + evolution by natural selection—under silent study and meditation for + nearly twenty years, giving no hint of it to the world at large, but + working in every field to secure proofs or disproofs, and accumulating + masses of precious material for the solution of the questions involved. + </p> + <p> + To one man only did he reveal his thought—to Dr. Joseph Hooker, to + whom in 1844, under the seal of secrecy, he gave a summary of his + conclusions. Not until fourteen years later occurred the event which + showed him that the fulness of time had come—the letter from Alfred + Russel Wallace, to whom, in brilliant researches during the decade from + 1848 to 1858, in Brazil and in the Malay Archipelago, the same truth of + evolution by natural selection had been revealed. Among the proofs that + scientific study does no injury to the more delicate shades of sentiment + is the well-known story of this letter. With it Wallace sent Darwin a + memoir, asking him to present it to the Linnaean Society: on examining it, + Darwin found that Wallace had independently arrived at conclusions similar + to his own—possibly had deprived him of fame; but Darwin was loyal + to his friend, and his friend remained ever loyal to him. He publicly + presented the paper from Wallace, with his own conclusions; and the date + of this presentation—July 1, 1858—separates two epochs in the + history, not merely of natural science, but of human thought. + </p> + <p> + In the following year, 1859, came the first instalment of his work in its + fuller development—his book on The Origin of Species. In this book + one at least of the main secrets at the heart of the evolutionary process, + which had baffled the long line of investigators and philosophers from the + days of Aristotle, was more broadly revealed. The effective mechanism of + evolution was shown at work in three ascertained facts: in the struggle + for existence among organized beings; in the survival of the fittest; and + in heredity. These facts were presented with such minute research, wide + observation, patient collation, transparent honesty, and judicial + fairness, that they at once commanded the world's attention. It was the + outcome of thirty years' work and thought by a worker and thinker of + genius, but it was yet more than that—it was the outcome, also, of + the work and thought of another man of genius fifty years before. The book + of Malthus on the Principle of Population, mainly founded on the fact that + animals increase in a geometrical ratio, and therefore, if unchecked, must + encumber the earth, had been generally forgotten, and was only recalled + with a sneer. But the genius of Darwin recognised in it a deeper meaning, + and now the thought of Malthus was joined to the new current. Meditating + upon it in connection with his own observations of the luxuriance of + Nature, Darwin had arrived at his doctrine of natural selection and + survival of the fittest. + </p> + <p> + As the great dogmatic barrier between the old and new views of the + universe was broken down, the flood of new thought pouring over the world + stimulated and nourished strong growths in every field of research and + reasoning: edition after edition of the book was called for; it was + translated even into Japanese and Hindustani; the stagnation of scientific + thought, which Buckle, only a few years before, had so deeply lamented, + gave place to a widespread and fruitful activity; masses of accumulated + observations, which had seemed stale and unprofitable, were made alive; + facts formerly without meaning now found their interpretation. Under this + new influence an army of young men took up every promising line of + scientific investigation in every land. Epoch-making books appeared in all + the great nations. Spencer, Wallace, Huxley, Galton, Tyndall, Tylor, + Lubbock, Bagehot, Lewes, in England, and a phalanx of strong men in + Germany, Italy, France, and America gave forth works which became + authoritative in every department of biology. If some of the older men in + France held back, overawed perhaps by the authority of Cuvier, the younger + and more vigorous pressed on. + </p> + <p> + One source of opposition deserves to be especially mentioned—Louis + Agassiz. + </p> + <p> + A great investigator, an inspired and inspiring teacher, a noble man, he + had received and elaborated a theory of animated creation which he could + not readily change. In his heart and mind still prevailed the atmosphere + of the little Swiss parsonage in which he was born, and his religious and + moral nature, so beautiful to all who knew him, was especially repelled by + sundry evolutionists, who, in their zeal as neophytes, made proclamations + seeming to have a decidedly irreligious if not immoral bearing. In + addition to this was the direction his thinking had received from Cuvier. + Both these influences combined to prevent his acceptance of the new view. + </p> + <p> + He was the third great man who had thrown his influence as a barrier + across the current of evolutionary thought. Linnaeus in the second half of + the eighteenth century, Cuvier in the first half, and Agassiz in the + second half of the nineteenth—all made the same effort. Each remains + great; but not all of them together could arrest the current. Agassiz's + strong efforts throughout the United States, and indeed throughout Europe, + to check it, really promoted it. From the great museum he had founded at + Cambridge, from his summer school at Penikese, from his lecture rooms at + Harvard and Cornell, his disciples went forth full of love and admiration + for him, full of enthusiasm which he had stirred and into fields which he + had indicated; but their powers, which he had aroused and strengthened, + were devoted to developing the truth he failed to recognise; Shaler, + Verrill, Packard, Hartt, Wilder, Jordan, with a multitude of others, and + especially the son who bore his honoured name, did justice to his memory + by applying what they had received from him to research under inspiration + of the new revelation. + </p> + <p> + Still another man deserves especial gratitude and honour in this progress—Edward + Livingston Youmans. He was perhaps the first in America to recognise the + vast bearings of the truths presented by Darwin, Wallace, and Spencer. He + became the apostle of these truths, sacrificing the brilliant career on + which he had entered as a public lecturer, subordinating himself to the + three leaders, and giving himself to editorial drudgery in the stimulation + of research and the announcement of results. + </p> + <p> + In support of the new doctrine came a world of new proofs; those which + Darwin himself added in regard to the cross-fertilization of plants, and + which he had adopted from embryology, led the way, and these were followed + by the discoveries of Wallace, Bates, Huxley, Marsh, Cope, Leidy, Haeckel, + Muller, Gaudry, and a multitude of others in all lands.(22) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (22) For Agassiz's opposition to evolution, see the Essay on +Classification, vol. i, 1857, as regards Lamark, and vol. iii, as +regards Darwin; also Silliman's Journal, July 1860; also the Atlantic +Monthly, January 1874; also his Life and Correspondence, vol. ii, p. +647; also Asa Gray, Scientific Papers, vol. ii, p. 484. A reminiscence +of my own enables me to appreciate his deep ethical and religious +feeling. I was passing the day with him at Nahant in 1868, consulting +him regarding candidates for various scientific chairs at the newly +established Cornell University, in which he took a deep interest. As we +discussed one after another of the candidates, he suddenly said: "Who is +to be your Professor of Moral Philosophy? That is a far more important +position than all the others." +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IV. THE FINAL EFFORT OF THEOLOGY. + </h2> + <p> + Darwin's Origin of Species had come into the theological world like a + plough into an ant-hill. Everywhere those thus rudely awakened from their + old comfort and repose had swarmed forth angry and confused. Reviews, + sermons, books light and heavy, came flying at the new thinker from all + sides. + </p> + <p> + The keynote was struck at once in the Quarterly Review by Wilberforce, + Bishop of Oxford. He declared that Darwin was guilty of "a tendency to + limit God's glory in creation"; that "the principle of natural selection + is absolutely incompatible with the word of God"; that it "contradicts the + revealed relations of creation to its Creator"; that it is "inconsistent + with the fulness of his glory"; that it is "a dishonouring view of + Nature"; and that there is "a simpler explanation of the presence of these + strange forms among the works of God": that explanation being—"the + fall of Adam." Nor did the bishop's efforts end here; at the meeting of + the British Association for the Advancement of Science he again disported + himself in the tide of popular applause. Referring to the ideas of Darwin, + who was absent on account of illness, he congratulated himself in a public + speech that he was not descended from a monkey. The reply came from + Huxley, who said in substance: "If I had to choose, I would prefer to be a + descendant of a humble monkey rather than of a man who employs his + knowledge and eloquence in misrepresenting those who are wearing out their + lives in the search for truth." + </p> + <p> + This shot reverberated through England, and indeed through other + countries. + </p> + <p> + The utterances of this the most brilliant prelate of the Anglican Church + received a sort of antiphonal response from the leaders of the English + Catholics. In an address before the "Academia," which had been organized + to combat "science falsely so called," Cardinal Manning declared his + abhorrence of the new view of Nature, and described it as "a brutal + philosophy—to wit, there is no God, and the ape is our Adam." + </p> + <p> + These attacks from such eminent sources set the clerical fashion for + several years. One distinguished clerical reviewer, in spite of Darwin's + thirty years of quiet labour, and in spite of the powerful summing up of + his book, prefaced a diatribe by saying that Darwin "might have been more + modest had he given some slight reason for dissenting from the views + generally entertained." Another distinguished clergyman, vice-president of + a Protestant institute to combat "dangerous" science, declared Darwinism + "an attempt to dethrone God." Another critic spoke of persons accepting + the Darwinian views as "under the frenzied inspiration of the inhaler of + mephitic gas," and of Darwin's argument as "a jungle of fanciful + assumption." Another spoke of Darwin's views as suggesting that "God is + dead," and declared that Darwin's work "does open violence to everything + which the Creator himself has told us in the Scriptures of the methods and + results of his work." Still another theological authority asserted: "If + the Darwinian theory is true, Genesis is a lie, the whole framework of the + book of life falls to pieces, and the revelation of God to man, as we + Christians know it, is a delusion and a snare." Another, who had shown + excellent qualities as an observing naturalist, declared the Darwinian + view "a huge imposture from the beginning." + </p> + <p> + Echoes came from America. One review, the organ of the most widespread of + American religious sects, declared that Darwin was "attempting to befog + and to pettifog the whole question"; another denounced Darwin's views as + "infidelity"; another, representing the American branch of the Anglican + Church, poured contempt over Darwin as "sophistical and illogical," and + then plunged into an exceedingly dangerous line of argument in the + following words: "If this hypothesis be true, then is the Bible an + unbearable fiction;... then have Christians for nearly two thousand years + been duped by a monstrous lie.... Darwin requires us to disbelieve the + authoritative word of the Creator." A leading journal representing the + same church took pains to show the evolution theory to be as contrary to + the explicit declarations of the New Testament as to those of the Old, and + said: "If we have all, men and monkeys, oysters and eagles, developed from + an original germ, then is St. Paul's grand deliverance—'All flesh is + not the same flesh; there is one kind of flesh of men, another of beasts, + another of fishes, and another of birds'—untrue." + </p> + <p> + Another echo came from Australia, where Dr. Perry, Lord Bishop of + Melbourne, in a most bitter book on Science and the Bible, declared that + the obvious object of Chambers, Darwin, and Huxley is "to produce in their + readers a disbelief of the Bible." + </p> + <p> + Nor was the older branch of the Church to be left behind in this chorus. + Bayma, in the Catholic World, declared, "Mr. Darwin is, we have reason to + believe, the mouthpiece or chief trumpeter of that infidel clique whose + well-known object is to do away with all idea of a God." + </p> + <p> + Worthy of especial note as showing the determination of the theological + side at that period was the foundation of sacro-scientific organizations + to combat the new ideas. First to be noted is the "Academia," planned by + Cardinal Wiseman. In a circular letter the cardinal, usually so moderate + and just, sounded an alarm and summed up by saying, "Now it is for the + Church, which alone possesses divine certainty and divine discernment, to + place itself at once in the front of a movement which threatens even the + fragmentary remains of Christian belief in England." The necessary + permission was obtained from Rome, the Academia was founded, and the + "divine discernment" of the Church was seen in the utterances which came + from it, such as those of Cardinal Manning, which every thoughtful + Catholic would now desire to recall, and in the diatribes of Dr. Laing, + which only aroused laughter on all sides. A similar effort was seen in + Protestant quarters; the "Victoria institute" was created, and perhaps the + most noted utterance which ever came from it was the declaration of its + vice-president, the Rev. Walter Mitchell, that "Darwinism endeavours to + dethrone God."(23) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (23) For Wilberforce's article, see Quarterly Review, July, 1860. For +the reply of Huxley to the bishop's speech I have relied on the account +given in Quatrefages, who had it from Carpenter; a somewhat different +version is given in the Life and Letters of Darwin. For Cardinal +Manning's attack, see Essays on Religion and Literature, London, 1865. +For the review articles, see the Quarterly already cited, and that +for July, 1874; also the North British Review, May 1860; also, F. O. +Morris's letter in the Record, reprinted at Glasgow, 1870; also the +Addresses of Rev. Walter Mitchell before the Victoria Institute, London, +1867; also Rev. B. G. Johns, Moses not Darwin, a Sermon, March 31, 1871. +For the earlier American attacks, see Methodist Quarterly Review, April +1871; The American Church Review, July and October, 1865, and January, +1866. For the Australian attack, see Science and the Bible, by the Right +Reverend Charles Perry, D. D., Bishop of Melbourne, London, 1869. For +Bayma, see the Catholic World, vol. xxvi, p.782. For the Academia, see +Essays edited by Cardinal Manning, above cited; and for the Victoria +Institute, see Scientia Scientarum, by a member of the Victoria +Institute, London, 1865. +</pre> + <p> + In France the attack was even more violent. Fabre d'Envieu brought out the + heavy artillery of theology, and in a long series of elaborate + propositions demonstrated that any other doctrine than that of the fixity + and persistence of species is absolutely contrary to Scripture. The Abbe + Desorges, a former Professor of Theology, stigmatized Darwin as a + "pedant," and evolution as "gloomy". Monseigneur Segur, referring to + Darwin and his followers, went into hysterics and shrieked: "These + infamous doctrines have for their only support the most abject passions. + Their father is pride, their mother impurity, their offspring revolutions. + They come from hell and return thither, taking with them the gross + creatures who blush not to proclaim and accept them." + </p> + <p> + In Germany the attack, if less declamatory, was no less severe. Catholic + theologians vied with Protestants in bitterness. Prof. Michelis declared + Darwin's theory "a caricature of creation." Dr. Hagermann asserted that it + "turned the Creator out of doors." + </p> + <p> + Dr. Schund insisted that "every idea of the Holy Scriptures, from the + first to the last page, stands in diametrical opposition to the Darwinian + theory"; and, "if Darwin be right in his view of the development of man + out of a brutal condition, then the Bible teaching in regard to man is + utterly annihilated." Rougemont in Switzerland called for a crusade + against the obnoxious doctrine. Luthardt, Professor of Theology at + Leipsic, declared: "The idea of creation belongs to religion and not to + natural science; the whole superstructure of personal religion is built + upon the doctrine of creation"; and he showed the evolution theory to be + in direct contradiction to Holy Writ. + </p> + <p> + But in 1863 came an event which brought serious confusion to the + theological camp: Sir Charles Lyell, the most eminent of living + geologists, a man of deeply Christian feeling and of exceedingly cautious + temper, who had opposed the evolution theory of Lamarck and declared his + adherence to the idea of successive creations, then published his work on + the Antiquity of Man, and in this and other utterances showed himself a + complete though unwilling convert to the fundamental ideas of Darwin. The + blow was serious in many ways, and especially so in two—first, as + withdrawing all foundation in fact from the scriptural chronology, and + secondly, as discrediting the creation theory. The blow was not + unexpected; in various review articles against the Darwinian theory there + had been appeals to Lyell, at times almost piteous, "not to flinch from + the truths he had formerly proclaimed." But Lyell, like the honest man he + was, yielded unreservedly to the mass of new proofs arrayed on the side of + evolution against that of creation. + </p> + <p> + At the same time came Huxley's Man's Place in Nature, giving new and most + cogent arguments in favour of evolution by natural selection. + </p> + <p> + In 1871 was published Darwin's Descent of Man. Its doctrine had been + anticipated by critics of his previous books, but it made, none the less, + a great stir; again the opposing army trooped forth, though evidently with + much less heart than before. A few were very violent. The Dublin + University Magazine, after the traditional Hibernian fashion, charged Mr. + Darwin with seeking "to displace God by the unerring action of vagary," + and with being "resolved to hunt God out of the world." But most notable + from the side of the older Church was the elaborate answer to Darwin's + book by the eminent French Catholic physician, Dr. Constantin James. In + his work, On Darwinism, or the Man-Ape, published at Paris in 1877, Dr. + James not only refuted Darwin scientifically but poured contempt on his + book, calling it "a fairy tale," and insisted that a work "so fantastic + and so burlesque" was, doubtless, only a huge joke, like Erasmus's Praise + of Folly, or Montesquieu's Persian Letters. The princes of the Church were + delighted. The Cardinal Archbishop of Paris assured the author that the + book had become his "spiritual reading," and begged him to send a copy to + the Pope himself. His Holiness, Pope Pius IX, acknowledged the gift in a + remarkable letter. He thanked his dear son, the writer, for the book in + which he "refutes so well the aberrations of Darwinism." "A system," His + Holiness adds, "which is repugnant at once to history, to the tradition of + all peoples, to exact science, to observed facts, and even to Reason + herself, would seem to need no refutation, did not alienation from God and + the leaning toward materialism, due to depravity, eagerly seek a support + in all this tissue of fables.... And, in fact, pride, after rejecting the + Creator of all things and proclaiming man independent, wishing him to be + his own king, his own priest, and his own God—pride goes so far as + to degrade man himself to the level of the unreasoning brutes, perhaps + even of lifeless matter, thus unconsciously confirming the Divine + declaration, WHEN PRIDE COMETH, THEN COMETH SHAME. But the corruption of + this age, the machinations of the perverse, the danger of the simple, + demand that such fancies, altogether absurd though they are, should—since + they borrow the mask of science—be refuted by true science." + Wherefore the Pope thanked Dr. James for his book, "so opportune and so + perfectly appropriate to the exigencies of our time," and bestowed on him + the apostolic benediction. Nor was this brief all. With it there came a + second, creating the author an officer of the Papal Order of St. + Sylvester. The cardinal archbishop assured the delighted physician that + such a double honour of brief and brevet was perhaps unprecedented, and + suggested only that in a new edition of his book he should "insist a + little more on the relation existing between the narratives of Genesis and + the discoveries of modern science, in such fashion as to convince the most + incredulous of their perfect agreement." The prelate urged also a more + dignified title. The proofs of this new edition were accordingly all + submitted to His Eminence, and in 1882 it appeared as Moses and Darwin: + the Man of Genesis compared with the Man-Ape, or Religious Education + opposed to Atheistic. No wonder the cardinal embraced the author, thanking + him in the name of science and religion. "We have at last," he declared, + "a handbook which we can safely put into the hands of youth." + </p> + <p> + Scarcely less vigorous were the champions of English Protestant orthodoxy. + In an address at Liverpool, Mr. Gladstone remarked: "Upon the grounds of + what is termed evolution God is relieved of the labour of creation; in the + name of unchangeable laws he is discharged from governing the world"; and, + when Herbert Spencer called his attention to the fact that Newton with the + doctrine of gravitation and with the science of physical astronomy is open + to the same charge, Mr. Gladstone retreated in the Contemporary Review + under one of his characteristic clouds of words. The Rev. Dr. Coles, in + the British and Foreign Evangelical Review, declared that the God of + evolution is not the Christian's God. Burgon, Dean of Chichester, in a + sermon preached before the University of Oxford, pathetically warned the + students that "those who refuse to accept the history of the creation of + our first parents according to its obvious literal intention, and are for + substituting the modern dream of evolution in its place, cause the entire + scheme of man's salvation to collapse." Dr. Pusey also came into the fray + with most earnest appeals against the new doctrine, and the Rev. Gavin + Carlyle was perfervid on the same side. The Society for Promoting + Christian Knowledge published a book by the Rev. Mr. Birks, in which the + evolution doctrine was declared to be "flatly opposed to the fundamental + doctrine of creation." Even the London Times admitted a review + stigmatizing Darwin's Descent of Man as an "utterly unsupported + hypothesis," full of "unsubstantiated premises, cursory investigations, + and disintegrating speculations," and Darwin himself as "reckless and + unscientific."(24) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (24) For the French theological opposition to the Darwinian theory, see +Pozzy, La Terre at le Recit Biblique de la Creation, 1874, especially +pp. 353, 363; also Felix Ducane, Etudes sur la Transformisme, 1876, +especially pp. 107 to 119. As to Fabre d'Envieu, see especially +his Proposition xliii. For the Abbe Desogres, "former Professor of +Philosophy and Theology," see his Erreurs Modernes, Paris, 1878, pp. 677 +and 595 to 598. For Monseigneur Segur, see his La Foi devant la Science +Moderne, sixth ed., Paris, 1874, pp. 23, 34, etc. For Herbert Spencer's +reply to Mr. Gladstone, see his study of Sociology; for the passage in +the Dublin Review, see the issue for July, 1871. For the Review in the +London Times, see Nature for April 20, 1871. For Gavin Carlyle, see The +Battle of Unbelief, 1870, pp. 86 and 171. For the attacks by Michelis +and Hagermann, see Natur und Offenbarung, Munster, 1861 to 1869. For +Schund, see his Darwin's Hypothese und ihr Verhaaltniss zu Religion +und Moral, Stuttgart, 1869. For Luthardt, see Fundamental Truths of +Christianity, translated by Sophia Taylor, second ed., Edinburgh, 1869. +For Rougemont, see his L'Homme et le Singe, Neuchatel, 1863 (also +in German trans.). For Constantin James, see his Mes Entretiens avec +l'Empereur Don Pedro sur la Darwinisme, Paris, 1888, where the papal +briefs are printed in full. For the English attacks on Darwin's Descent +of Man, see the Edinburgh Review July, 1871 and elsewhere; the Dublin +Review, July, 1871; the British and Foreign Evangelical Review, April, +1886. See also The Scripture Doctrine of Creation, by the Rev. T. +R. Birks, London, 1873, published by the S. P. C. K. For Dr. Pusey's +attack, see his Unscience, not Science, adverse to Faith, 1878; also +Darwin's Life and Letters, vol. ii, pp. 411, 412. +</pre> + <p> + But it was noted that this second series of attacks, on the Descent of + Man, differed in one remarkable respect—so far as England was + concerned—from those which had been made over ten years before on + the Origin of Species. While everything was done to discredit Darwin, to + pour contempt upon him, and even, of all things in the world, to make him—the + gentlest of mankind, only occupied with the scientific side of the problem—"a + persecutor of Christianity," while his followers were represented more and + more as charlatans or dupes, there began to be in the most influential + quarters careful avoidance of the old argument that evolution—even + by natural selection—contradicts Scripture. + </p> + <p> + It began to be felt that this was dangerous ground. The defection of Lyell + had, perhaps, more than anything else, started the question among + theologians who had preserved some equanimity, "WHAT IF, AFTER ALL, THE + DARWINIAN THEORY SHOULD PROVE TO BE TRUE?" Recollections of the position + in which the Roman Church found itself after the establishment of the + doctrines of Copernicus and Galileo naturally came into the minds of the + more thoughtful. In Germany this consideration does not seem to have + occurred at quite so early a day. One eminent Lutheran clergyman at + Magdeburg called on his hearers to choose between Darwin and religion; + Delitszch, in his new commentary on Genesis, attempted to bring science + back to recognise human sin as an important factor in creation; Prof. + Heinrich Ewald, while carefully avoiding any sharp conflict between the + scriptural doctrine and evolution, comforted himself by covering Darwin + and his followers with contempt; Christlieb, in his address before the + Evangelical Alliance at New York in 1873, simply took the view that the + tendencies of the Darwinian theory were "toward infidelity," but declined + to make any serious battle on biblical grounds; the Jesuit, Father Pesch, + in Holland, drew up in Latin, after the old scholastic manner, a sort of + general indictment of evolution, of which one may say that it was + interesting—as interesting as the display of a troop in chain armour + and with cross-bows on a nineteenth-century battlefield. + </p> + <p> + From America there came new echoes. Among the myriad attacks on the + Darwinian theory by Protestants and Catholics two should be especially + mentioned. The first of these was by Dr. Noah Porter, President of Yale + College, an excellent scholar, an interesting writer, a noble man, broadly + tolerant, combining in his thinking a curious mixture of radicalism and + conservatism. While giving great latitude to the evolutionary teaching in + the university under his care, he felt it his duty upon one occasion to + avow his disbelief in it; but he was too wise a man to suggest any + necessary antagonism between it and the Scriptures. He confined himself + mainly to pointing out the tendency of the evolution doctrine in this form + toward agnosticism and pantheism. + </p> + <p> + To those who knew and loved him, and had noted the genial way in which by + wise neglect he had allowed scientific studies to flourish at Yale, there + was an amusing side to all this. Within a stone's throw of his college + rooms was the Museum of Paleontology, in which Prof. Marsh had laid side + by side, among other evidences of the new truth, that wonderful series of + specimens showing the evolution of the horse from the earliest form of the + animal, "not larger than a fox, with five toes," through the whole series + up to his present form and size—that series which Huxley declared an + absolute proof of the existence of natural selection as an agent in + evolution. In spite of the veneration and love which all Yale men felt for + President Porter, it was hardly to be expected that these particular + arguments of his would have much permanent effect upon them when there was + constantly before their eyes so convincing a refutation. + </p> + <p> + But a far more determined opponent was the Rev. Dr. Hodge, of Princeton; + his anger toward the evolution doctrine was bitter: he denounced it as + thoroughly "atheistic"; he insisted that Christians "have a right to + protest against the arraying of probabilities against the clear evidence + of the Scriptures"; he even censured so orthodox a writer as the Duke of + Argyll, and declared that the Darwinian theory of natural selection is + "utterly inconsistent with the Scriptures," and that "an absent God, who + does nothing, is to us no God"; that "to ignore design as manifested in + God's creation is to dethrone God"; that "a denial of design in Nature is + virtually a denial of God"; and that "no teleologist can be a Darwinian." + Even more uncompromising was another of the leading authorities at the + same university—the Rev. Dr. Duffield. He declared war not only + against Darwin but even against men like Asa Gray, Le Conte, and others, + who had attempted to reconcile the new theory with the Bible: he insisted + that "evolutionism and the scriptural account of the origin of man are + irreconcilable"—that the Darwinian theory is "in direct conflict + with the teaching of the apostle, 'All scripture is given by inspiration + of God'"; he pointed out, in his opposition to Darwin's Descent of Man and + Lyell's Antiquity of Man, that in the Bible "the genealogical links which + connect the Israelites in Egypt with Adam and Eve in Eden are explicitly + given." These utterances of Prof. Duffield culminated in a declaration + which deserves to be cited as showing that a Presbyterian minister can + "deal damnation round the land" ex cathedra in a fashion quite equal to + that of popes and bishops. It is as follows: "If the development theory of + the origin of man," wrote Dr. Duffield in the Princeton Review, "shall in + a little while take its place—as doubtless it will—with other + exploded scientific speculations, then they who accept it with its proper + logical consequences will in the life to come have their portion with + those who in this life 'know not God and obey not the gospel of his Son.'" + </p> + <p> + Fortunately, at about the time when Darwin's Descent of Man was published, + there had come into Princeton University "deus ex machina" in the person + of Dr. James McCosh. Called to the presidency, he at once took his stand + against teachings so dangerous to Christianity as those of Drs. Hodge, + Duffield, and their associates. In one of his personal confidences he has + let us into the secret of this matter. With that hard Scotch sense which + Thackeray had applauded in his well-known verses, he saw that the most + dangerous thing which could be done to Christianity at Princeton was to + reiterate in the university pulpit, week after week, solemn declarations + that if evolution by natural selection, or indeed evolution at all, be + true, the Scriptures are false. He tells us that he saw that this was the + certain way to make the students unbelievers; he therefore not only + checked this dangerous preaching but preached an opposite doctrine. With + him began the inevitable compromise, and, in spite of mutterings against + him as a Darwinian, he carried the day. Whatever may be thought of his + general system of philosophy, no one can deny his great service in + neutralizing the teachings of his predecessors and colleagues—so + dangerous to all that is essential in Christianity. + </p> + <p> + Other divines of strong sense in other parts of the country began to take + similar ground—namely, that men could be Christians and at the same + time Darwinians. There appeared, indeed, here and there, curious + discrepancies: thus in 1873 the Monthly Religious Magazine of Boston + congratulated its readers that the Rev. Mr. Burr had "demolished the + evolution theory, knocking the breath of life out of it and throwing it to + the dogs." This amazing performance by the Rev. Mr. Burr was repeated in a + very striking way by Bishop Keener before the Oecumenical Council of + Methodism at Washington in 1891. In what the newspapers described as an + "admirable speech," he refuted evolution doctrines by saying that + evolutionists had "only to make a journey of twelve hours from the place + where he was then standing to find together the bones of the muskrat, the + opossum, the coprolite, and the ichthyosaurus." He asserted that Agassiz—whom + the good bishop, like so many others, seemed to think an evolutionist—when + he visited these beds near Charleston, declared: "These old beds have set + me crazy; they have destroyed the work of a lifetime." And the Methodist + prelate ended by saying: "Now, gentlemen, brethren, take these facts home + with you; get down and look at them. This is the watch that was under the + steam hammer—the doctrine of evolution; and this steam hammer is the + wonderful deposit of the Ashley beds." Exhibitions like these availed + little. While the good bishop amid vociferous applause thus made comically + evident his belief that Agassiz was a Darwinian and a coprolite an animal, + scientific men were recording in all parts of the world facts confirming + the dreaded theory of an evolution by natural selection. While the Rev. + Mr. Burr was so loudly praised for "throwing Darwinism to the dogs," Marsh + was completing his series leading from the five-toed ungulates to the + horse. While Dr. Tayler Lewis at Union, and Drs. Hodge and Duffield at + Princeton, were showing that if evolution be true the biblical accounts + must be false, the indefatigable Yale professor was showing his cretaceous + birds, and among them Hesperornis and Ichthyornis with teeth. While in + Germany Luthardt, Schund, and their compeers were demonstrating that + Scripture requires a belief in special and separate creations, the + Archaeopteryx, showing a most remarkable connection between birds and + reptiles, was discovered. + </p> + <p> + While in France Monseigneur Segur and others were indulging in diatribes + against "a certain Darwin," Gaudry and Filhol were discovering a striking + series of "missing links" among the carnivora. In view of the proofs + accumulating in favour of the new evolutionary hypothesis, the change in + the tone of controlling theologians was now rapid. From all sides came + evidences of desire to compromise with the theory. Strict adherents of the + biblical text pointed significantly to the verses in Genesis in which the + earth and sea were made to bring forth birds and fishes, and man was + created out of the dust of the ground. Men of larger mind like Kingsley + and Farrar, with English and American broad churchmen generally, took + ground directly in Darwin's favour. Even Whewell took pains to show that + there might be such a thing as a Darwinian argument for design in Nature; + and the Rev. Samuel Houghton, of the Royal Society, gave interesting + suggestions of a divine design in evolution. + </p> + <p> + Both the great English universities received the new teaching as a leaven: + at Oxford, in the very front of the High Church party at Keble College, + was elaborated a statement that the evolution doctrine is "an advance in + our theological thinking." And Temple, Bishop of London, perhaps the most + influential thinker then in the Anglican episcopate, accepted the new + revelation in the following words: "It seems something more majestic, more + befitting him to whom a thousand years are as one day, thus to impress his + will once for all on his creation, and provide for all the countless + varieties by this one original impress, than by special acts of creation + to be perpetually modifying what he had previously made." + </p> + <p> + In Scotland the Duke of Argyll, head and front of the orthodox party, + dissenting in many respects from Darwin's full conclusions, made + concessions which badly shook the old position. + </p> + <p> + Curiously enough, from the Roman Catholic Church, bitter as some of its + writers had been, now came argument to prove that the Catholic faith does + not prevent any one from holding the Darwinian theory, and especially a + declaration from an authority eminent among American Catholics—a + declaration which has a very curious sound, but which it would be + ungracious to find fault with—that "the doctrine of evolution is no + more in opposition to the doctrine of the Catholic Church than is the + Copernican theory or that of Galileo." + </p> + <p> + Here and there, indeed, men of science like Dawson, Mivart, and Wigand, in + view of theological considerations, sought to make conditions; but the + current was too strong, and eminent theologians in every country accepted + natural selection as at least a very important part in the mechanism of + evolution. + </p> + <p> + At the death of Darwin it was felt that there was but one place in England + where his body should be laid, and that this place was next the grave of + Sir Isaac Newton in Westminster Abbey. The noble address of Canon Farrar + at his funeral was echoed from many pulpits in Europe and America, and + theological opposition as such was ended. Occasionally appeared, it is + true, a survival of the old feeling: the Rev. Dr. Laing referred to the + burial of Darwin in Westminster Abbey as "a proof that England is no + longer a Christian country," and added that this burial was a desecration—that + this honour was given him because he had been "the chief promoter of the + mock doctrine of evolution of the species and the ape descent of man." + </p> + <p> + Still another of these belated prophets was, of all men, Thomas Carlyle. + Soured and embittered, in the same spirit which led him to find more + heroism in a marauding Viking or in one of Frederick the Great's generals + than in Washington, or Lincoln, or Grant, and which caused him to see in + the American civil war only the burning out of a foul chimney, he, with + the petulance natural to a dyspeptic eunuch, railed at Darwin as an + "apostle of dirt worship." + </p> + <p> + The last echoes of these utterances reverberated between Scotland and + America. In the former country, in 1885, the Rev. Dr. Lee issued a volume + declaring that, if the Darwinian view be true, "there is no place for + God"; that "by no method of interpretation can the language of Holy + Scripture be made wide enough to re-echo the orang-outang theory of man's + natural history"; that "Darwinism reverses the revelation of God" and + "implies utter blasphemy against the divine and human character of our + Incarnate Lord"; and he was pleased to call Darwin and his followers + "gospellers of the gutter." In one of the intellectual centres of America + the editor of a periodical called The Christian urged frantically that + "the battle be set in array, and that men find out who is on the Lord's + side and who is on the side of the devil and the monkeys." + </p> + <p> + To the honour of the Church of England it should be recorded that a + considerable number of her truest men opposed such utterances as these, + and that one of them—Farrar, Archdeacon of Westminster—made a + protest worthy to be held in perpetual remembrance. While confessing his + own inability to accept fully the new scientific belief, he said: "We + should consider it disgraceful and humiliating to try to shake it by an ad + captandum argument, or by a clap-trap platform appeal to the unfathomable + ignorance and unlimited arrogance of a prejudiced assembly. We should + blush to meet it with an anathema or a sneer." + </p> + <p> + All opposition had availed nothing; Darwin's work and fame were secure. As + men looked back over his beautiful life—simple, honest, tolerant, + kindly—and thought upon his great labours in the search for truth, + all the attacks faded into nothingness. + </p> + <p> + There were indeed some dark spots, which as time goes on appear darker. At + Trinity College, Cambridge, Whewell, the "omniscient," author of the + History of the Inductive Sciences, refused to allow a copy of the Origin + of Species to be placed in the library. At multitudes of institutions + under theological control—Protestant as well as Catholic—attempts + were made to stamp out or to stifle evolutionary teaching. Especially was + this true for a time in America, and the case of the American College at + Beyrout, where nearly all the younger professors were dismissed for + adhering to Darwin's views, is worthy of remembrance. The treatment of Dr. + Winchell at the Vanderbilt University in Tennessee showed the same spirit; + one of the truest of men, devoted to science but of deeply Christian + feeling, he was driven forth for views which centred in the Darwinian + theory. + </p> + <p> + Still more striking was the case of Dr. Woodrow. He had, about 1857, been + appointed to a professorship of Natural Science as connected with Revealed + Religion, in the Presbyterian Seminary at Columbia, South Carolina. He was + a devoted Christian man, and his training had led him to accept the + Presbyterian standards of faith. With great gifts for scientific study he + visited Europe, made a most conscientious examination of the main + questions under discussion, and adopted the chief points in the doctrine + of evolution by natural selection. A struggle soon began. A movement + hostile to him grew more and more determined, and at last, in spite of the + efforts made in his behalf by the directors of the seminary and by a large + and broad-minded minority in the representative bodies controlling it, an + orthodox storm, raised by the delegates from various Presbyterian bodies, + drove him from his post. Fortunately, he was received into a professorship + at the University of South Carolina, where he has since taught with more + power than ever before. + </p> + <p> + This testimony to the faith by American provincial Protestantism was very + properly echoed from Spanish provincial Catholicism. In the year 1878 a + Spanish colonial man of science, Dr. Chil y Marango, published a work on + the Canary Islands. But Dr. Chil had the imprudence to sketch, in his + introduction, the modern hypothesis of evolution, and to exhibit some + proofs, found in the Canary Islands, of the barbarism of primitive man. + The ecclesiastical authorities, under the lead of Bishop Urquinaona y + Bidot, at once grappled with this new idea. By a solemn act they declared + it "falsa, impia, scandalosa"; all persons possessing copies of the work + were ordered to surrender them at once to the proper ecclesiastics, and + the author was placed under the major excommunication. + </p> + <p> + But all this opposition may be reckoned among the last expiring + convulsions of the old theologic theory. Even from the new Catholic + University at Washington has come an utterance in favour of the new + doctrine, and in other universities in the Old World and in the New the + doctrine of evolution by natural selection has asserted its right to full + and honest consideration. More than this, it is clearly evident that the + stronger men in the Church have, in these latter days, not only + relinquished the struggle against science in this field, but have + determined frankly and manfully to make an alliance with it. In two very + remarkable lectures given in 1892 at the parish church of Rochdale, + Wilson, Archdeacon of Manchester, not only accepted Darwinism as true, but + wrought it with great argumentative power into a higher view of + Christianity; and what is of great significance, these sermons were + published by the same Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge + which only a few years before had published the most bitter attacks + against the Darwinian theory. So, too, during the year 1893, Prof. Henry + Drummond, whose praise is in all the dissenting churches, developed a + similar view most brilliantly in a series of lectures delivered before the + American Chautauqua schools, and published in one of the most widespread + of English orthodox newspapers. + </p> + <p> + Whatever additional factors may be added to natural selection—and + Darwin himself fully admitted that there might be others—the theory + of an evolution process in the formation of the universe and of animated + nature is established, and the old theory of direct creation is gone + forever. In place of it science has given us conceptions far more noble, + and opened the way to an argument for design infinitely more beautiful + than any ever developed by theology.(24) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (24) For the causes of bitterness shown regarding the Darwinian +hypothesis, see Reusch, Bibel und Natur, vol. ii, pp. 46 et seq. For +hostility in the United States regarding the Darwinian theory, see, +among a multitude of writers, the following: Dr. Charles Hodge, of +Princeton, monograph, What is Darwinism? New York, 1874; also his +Systematic Theology, New York, 1872, vol. ii, part 2, Anthropology; also +The Light by which we see Light, or Nature and the Scriptures, Vedder +Lectures, 1875, Rutgers College, New York, 1875; also Positivism and +Evolutionism, in the American Catholic Quarterly, October 1877, pp. 607, +619; and in the same number, Professor Huxley and Evolution, by Rev. A. +M. Kirsch, pp. 662, 664; The Logic of Evolution, by Prof. Edward F. X. +McSweeney, D. D., July, 1879, p. 561; Das Hexaemeron und die Geologie, +von P. Eirich, Pastor in Albany, N. Y., Lutherischer Concordia-Verlag, +St. Louis, Mo., 1878, pp. 81, 82, 84, 92-94; Evolutionism respecting +Man and the Bible, by John T. Duffield, of Princeton, January, 1878, +Princeton Review, pp. 151, 153, 154, 158, 159, 160, 188; a Lecture on +Evolution, before the Nineteenth Century Club of New York, May 25, 1886, +by ex-President Noah Porter, pp. 4, 26-29. For the laudatory notice of +the Rev. E. F. Burr's demolition of evolution in his book Pater Mundi, +see Monthly Religious Magazine, Boston, May, 1873, p. 492. Concerning +the removal of Dr. James Woodrow, Professor of Natural Science in the +Columbia Theological Seminary, see Evolution or Not, in the New York +Weekly Sun, October 24, 1888. For the dealings of Spanish +ecclesiastics with Dr. Chil and his Darwinian exposition, see the Revue +d'Anthropologie, cited in the Academy for April 6, 1878; see also the +Catholic World, xix, 433, A Discussion with an Infidel, directed against +Dr. Louis Buchner and his Kraft und Stoff; also Mind and Matter, by Rev. +james Tait, of Canada, p. 66 (in the third edition the author bemoans +the "horrible plaudits" that "have accompanied every effort to establish +man's brutal descent"); also The Church Journal, New York, May 28, 1874. +For the effort in favour of a teleological evolution, see Rev. Samuel +Houghton, F. R. S., Principles of Animal Mechanics, London, 1873, +preface and p. 156 and elsewhere. For the details of the persecutions +of Drs. Winchell and Woodrow, and of the Beyrout professors, with +authorities cited, see my chapter on The Fall of Man and Anthropology. +For more liberal views among religious thinkers regarding the Darwinian +theory, and for efforts to mitigate and adapt it to theological +views, see, among the great mass of utterances, the following: Charles +Kingsley's letters to Darwin, November 18, 1859, in Darwin's Life and +Letters, vol. ii, p. 82; Adam Sedgwick to Charles Darwin, December 24, +1859, see ibid., vol. ii, pp. 356-359; the same to Miss Gerard, January +2, 1860, see Sedgewick's Life and Letters, vol. ii, pp. 359, 360; the +same in The Spectator, London, March 24, 1860; The Rambler, March 1860, +cited by Mivart, Genesis of Species, p. 30; The Dublin Review, May, +1860; The Christian Examiner, May, 1860; Charles Kingsley to F. D. +Maurice in 1863, in Kingsley's Life, vol. ii, p. 171; Adam Sedgwick +to Livingstone (the explorer), March 16, 1865, in Life and Letters of +Sedgwick, vol. ii, pp. 410-412; the Duke of Argyll, The Reign of Law, +New York, pp. 16, 18, 31, 116, 117, 120, 159; Joseph P. Thompson, D. D., +LL.D., Man in Genesis and Geology, New York, 1870, pp. 48, 49, 82; Canon +H. P. Liddon, Sermons preached before the University of Oxford, +1871, Sermon III; St. George Mivart, Evolution and its Consequences, +Contemporary Review, Jan. 1872; British and Foreign Evangelical Review, +1872, article on The Theory of Evolution; The Lutheran Quarterly, +Gettysburg, Pa., April, 1872, article by Rev. Cyrus Thomas, Assistant +United States Geological Survey on The Descent of Man, pp. 214, 239, +372-376; The Lutheran Quarterly, July, 1873, article on Some Assumptions +against Christianity, by Rev. C. A. Stork, Baltimore, Md., pp. 325, 326; +also, in the same number, see a review of Dr. Burr's Pater Mundi, pp. +474, 475, and contrast with the review in the Andover Review of that +period; an article in the Religious Magazine and Monthly Review, Boston, +on Religion and Evolution, by Rev. S. R. Calthrop, September, 1873, +p. 200; The Popular Science Monthly, January, 1874, article Genesis, +Geology, and Evolution; article by Asa Gray, Nature, London, June 4, +1874; Materialism, by Rev. W. Streissguth, Lutheran Quarterly, July, +1875, originally written in German, and translated by J. G. Morris, +D. D., pp. 406, 408; Darwinismus und Christenthum, von R. Steck, Ref. +Pfarrer in Dresden, Berlin, 1875, pp. 5,6, and 26, reprinted from +the Protestantische Kirchenzeitung, and issued as a tract by the +Protestantenverein; Rev. W. E. Adams, article in the Lutheran Quarterly, +April, 1879, on Evolution: Shall it be Atheistic? John Wood, Bible +Anticipations of Modern Science, 1880, pp. 18, 19, 22; Lutheran +Quarterly, January, 1881, Some Postulates of the New Ethics, by Rev. +C. A. Stork, D. D.; Lutheran Quarterly, January, 1882, The Religion of +Evolution as against the Religion of Jesus, by Prof. W. H. Wynn, Iowa +State Agricultural College—this article was republished as a pamphlet; +Canon Liddon, prefatory note to sermon on The Recovery of St. Thomas, +pp. 4, 11, 12, 13, and 26, preached in St. Paul's Cathedral, April 23, +1882; Lutheran Quarterly, January 1882, Evolution and the Scripture, by +Rev. John A. Earnest, pp. 101, 105; Glimpses in the Twilight, by Rev. +F. G. Lee, D. D., Edinburgh, 1885, especially pp. 18 and 19; the Hibbert +Lectures for 1883, by Rev. Charles Beard, pp. 392, 393, et seq.; F. +W. Farrar, D. D., Canon of Westminster, The History of Interpretation, +being the Bampton Lectures for 1885, pp. 426, 427; Bishop Temple, +Bampton Lectures, pp. 184-186; article Evolution in the Dictionary +of Religion, edited by Rev. William Benham, 1887; Prof. Huxley, An +Episcopal Trilogy, Nineteenth Century, November, 1887—this article +discusses three sermons delivered by the bishops of Carlisle, Bedford, +and Manchester, in Manchester Cathedral, during the meeting of the +British Association, September, 1887—these sermons were afterward +published in pamphlet form under the title The Advance of Science; John +Fiske, Darwinism, and Other Essays, Boston, 1888; Harriet Mackenzie, +Evolution illuminating the Bible, London, 1891, dedicated to Prof. +Huxley; H. E. Rye, Hulsean Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, The Early +Narratives of Genesis, London, 1892, preface, pp. vii-ix, pp. 7, 9, 11; +Rev. G. M. Searle, of the Catholic University, Washington, article in +the Catholic World, November, 1892, pp. 223, 227, 229, 231; for the +statement from Keble College, see Rev. Mr. Illingworth, in Lux Mundi. +For Bishop Temple, see citation in Laing. For a complete and admirable +acceptance of the evolutionary theory as lifting Christian doctrine and +practice to a higher plane, with suggestions for a new theology, see two +Sermons by Archdeacon Wilson, of Manchester, S. P. C. K.. London, +and Young & Co., New York, 1893; and for a characteristically lucid +statement of the most recent development of evolution doctrines, and the +relations of Spencer, Weismann, Galton, and others to them, see Lester +F. Ward's Address as President of the Biological Society, Washington, +1891; also, recent articles in the leading English reviews. For a +brilliant glorification of evolution by natural selection as a doctrine +necessary to then highest and truest view of Christianity, see Prof. +Drummond's Chautauqua Lectures, published in the British Weekly, London, +from April 20 to May 11, 1893. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER II. GEOGRAPHY. + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I. THE FORM OF THE EARTH. + </h2> + <p> + Among various rude tribes we find survivals of a primitive idea that the + earth is a flat table or disk, ceiled, domed, or canopied by the sky, and + that the sky rests upon the mountains as pillars. Such a belief is + entirely natural; it conforms to the appearance of things, and hence at a + very early period entered into various theologies. + </p> + <p> + In the civilizations of Chaldea and Egypt it was very fully developed. The + Assyrian inscriptions deciphered in these latter years represent the god + Marduk as in the beginning creating the heavens and the earth: the earth + rests upon the waters; within it is the realm of the dead; above it is + spread "the firmament"—a solid dome coming down to the horizon on + all sides and resting upon foundations laid in the "great waters" which + extend around the earth. + </p> + <p> + On the east and west sides of this domed firmament are doors, through + which the sun enters in the morning and departs at night; above it extends + another ocean, which goes down to the ocean surrounding the earth at the + horizon on all sides, and which is supported and kept away from the earth + by the firmament. Above the firmament and the upper ocean which it + supports is the interior of heaven. + </p> + <p> + The Egyptians considered the earth as a table, flat and oblong, the sky + being its ceiling—a huge "firmament" of metal. At the four corners + of the earth were the pillars supporting this firmament, and on this solid + sky were the "waters above the heavens." They believed that, when chaos + was taking form, one of the gods by main force raised the waters on high + and spread them out over the firmament; that on the under side of this + solid vault, or ceiling, or firmament, the stars were suspended to light + the earth, and that the rains were caused by the letting down of the + waters through its windows. This idea and others connected with it seem to + have taken strong hold of the Egyptian priestly caste, entering into their + theology and sacred science: ceilings of great temples, with stars, + constellations, planets, and signs of the zodiac figured upon them, remain + to-day as striking evidences of this. + </p> + <p> + In Persia we have theories of geography based upon similar conceptions and + embalmed in sacred texts. + </p> + <p> + From these and doubtless from earlier sources common to them all came + geographical legacies to the Hebrews. Various passages in their sacred + books, many of them noble in conception and beautiful in form, regarding + "the foundation of the earth upon the waters," "the fountains of the great + deep," "the compass upon the face of the depth," the "firmament," the + "corners of the earth," the "pillars of heaven," the "waters above the + firmament," the "windows of heaven," and "doors of heaven," point us back + to both these ancient springs of thought.(25) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (25) For survivals of the early idea, among the Eskimos, of the sky as +supported by mountains, and, among sundry Pacific islanders, of the sky +as a firmament or vault of stone, see Tylor, Early History of Mankind, +second edition, London, 1870, chap. xi; Spencer, Sociology, vol. i, chap +vii, also Andrew Lang, La Mythologie, Paris, 1886, pp. 68-73. For the +Babylonian theories, see George Smith's Chaldean Genesis, and especially +the German translation by Delitzsch, Leipsic, 1876; also, Jensen, Die +Kosmogonien der Babylonier, Strasburg, 1890; see especially in the +appendices, pp. 9 and 10, a drawing representing the whole Babylonian +scheme so closely followed in the Hebrew book Genesis. See also Lukas, +Die Grundbegriffe in den Kosmogonien der alten Volker, Leipsic, 1893, +for a most thorough summing up of the whole subject, with texts showing +the development of Hebrew out of Chaldean and Egyptian conceptions, pp. +44, etc.; also pp. 127 et seq. For the early view in India and +Persia, see citations from the Vedas and the Zend-Avesta in Lethaby, +Architecture, Mysticism, and Myth, chap. i. For the Egyptian view, see +Champollion; also Lenormant, Histoire Ancienne, Maspero, and others. As +to the figures of the heavens upon the ceilings of Egyptian temples, +see Maspero, Archeologie Egyptienne, Paris, 1890; and for engravings of +them, see Lepsius, Denkmaler, vol. i, Bl. 41, and vol. ix, Abth. iv, Bl. +35; also the Description de l'Egypte, published by order of Napoleon, +tome ii, Pl. 14; also Prisse d'Avennes, Art Egyptien, Atlas, tome i, Pl. +35; and especially for a survival at the Temple of Denderah, see Denon, +Voyage en Egypte, Planches 129, 130. For the Egyptian idea of "pillars +of heaven," as alluded to on the stele of victory of Thotmes III,in the +Cairo Museum, see Ebers, Uarda, vol. ii, p. 175, note, Leipsic, 1877. For +a similar Babylonian belief, see Sayce's Herodotus, Appendix, p. 403. +For the belief of Hebrew scriptural writers in a solid "firmament," +see especially Job, xxxviii, 18; also Smith's Bible Dictionary. For +engravings showing the earth and heaven above it as conceived by +Egyptians and Chaldeans, with "pillars of heaven" and "firmament," see +Maspero and Sayce, Dawn of Civilization, London, 1894, pp. 17 and 543. +</pre> + <p> + But, as civilization was developed, there were evolved, especially among + the Greeks, ideas of the earth's sphericity. The Pythagoreans, Plato, and + Aristotle especially cherished them. These ideas were vague, they were + mixed with absurdities, but they were germ ideas, and even amid the + luxuriant growth of theology in the early Christian Church these germs + began struggling into life in the minds of a few thinking men, and these + men renewed the suggestion that the earth is a globe.(26) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (26) The agency of the Pythagoreans in first spreading the doctrine of +the earth's sphericity is generally acknowledged, but the first full and +clear utterance of it to the world was by Aristotle. Very fruitful, too, +was the statement of the new theory given by Plato in the Timaeus; see +Jowett's translation, 62, c. Also the Phaedo, pp.449 et seq. See also +Grote on Plato's doctrine on the sphericity of the earth; also Sir G. C. +Lewis's Astronomy of the Ancients, London, 1862, chap. iii, section i, +and note. Cicero's mention of the antipodes, and his reference to the +passage in the Timaeus, are even more remarkable than the latter, in +that they much more clearly foreshadow the modern doctrine. See his +Academic Questions, ii; also Tusc. Quest., i and v, 24. For a very full +summary of the views of the ancients on the sphericity of the earth, +see Kretschmer, Die physische Erkunde im christlichen Mittelalter, +Wien, 1889, pp. 35 et seq.; also Eiken, Geschichte der mittelalterlichen +Weltanschauung, Stuttgart, 1887, Dritter Theil, chap. vi. For citations +and summaries, see Whewell, Hist. Induct. Sciences, vol. i, p. 189, and +St. Martin, Hist. de la Geog., Paris, 1873, p. 96; also Leopardi, Saggio +sopra gli errori popolari degli antichi, Firenze, 1851, chap. xii, pp. +184 et seq. +</pre> + <p> + A few of the larger-minded fathers of the Church, influenced possibly by + Pythagorean traditions, but certainly by Aristotle and Plato, were willing + to accept this view, but the majority of them took fright at once. To them + it seemed fraught with dangers to Scripture, by which, of course, they + meant their interpretation of Scripture. Among the first who took up arms + against it was Eusebius. In view of the New Testament texts indicating the + immediately approaching, end of the world, he endeavoured to turn off this + idea by bringing scientific studies into contempt. Speaking of + investigators, he said, "It is not through ignorance of the things admired + by them, but through contempt of their useless labour, that we think + little of these matters, turning our souls to better things." Basil of + Caesarea declared it "a matter of no interest to us whether the earth is a + sphere or a cylinder or a disk, or concave in the middle like a fan." + Lactantius referred to the ideas of those studying astronomy as "bad and + senseless," and opposed the doctrine of the earth's sphericity both from + Scripture and reason. St. John Chrysostom also exerted his influence + against this scientific belief; and Ephraem Syrus, the greatest man of the + old Syrian Church, widely known as the "lute of the Holy Ghost," opposed + it no less earnestly. + </p> + <p> + But the strictly biblical men of science, such eminent fathers and bishops + as Theophilus of Antioch in the second century, and Clement of Alexandria + in the third, with others in centuries following, were not content with + merely opposing what they stigmatized as an old heathen theory; they drew + from their Bibles a new Christian theory, to which one Church authority + added one idea and another, until it was fully developed. Taking the + survival of various early traditions, given in the seventh verse of the + first chapter of Genesis, they insisted on the clear declarations of + Scripture that the earth was, at creation, arched over with a solid vault, + "a firmament," and to this they added the passages from Isaiah and the + Psalms, in which it declared that the heavens are stretched out "like a + curtain," and again "like a tent to dwell in." The universe, then, is like + a house: the earth is its ground floor, the firmament its ceiling, under + which the Almighty hangs out the sun to rule the day and the moon and + stars to rule the night. This ceiling is also the floor of the apartment + above, and in this is a cistern, shaped, as one of the authorities says, + "like a bathing-tank," and containing "the waters which are above the + firmament." These waters are let down upon the earth by the Almighty and + his angels through the "windows of heaven." As to the movement of the sun, + there was a citation of various passages in Genesis, mixed with + metaphysics in various proportions, and this was thought to give ample + proofs from the Bible that the earth could not be a sphere.(27) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (27) For Eusebius, see the Proep. Ev., xv, 61. For Basil, see the +Hexaemeron, Hom. ix. For Lactantius, see his Inst. Div., lib. iii, cap. +3; also citations in Whewell, Hist. Induct. Sciences, London, 1857, vol. +i, p. 194, and in St. Martin, Histoire de la Geographie, pp. 216, 217. +For the views of St. John Chrysostom, Ephraem Syrus, and other great +churchmen, see Kretschmer as above, chap i. +</pre> + <p> + In the sixth century this development culminated in what was nothing less + than a complete and detailed system of the universe, claiming to be based + upon Scripture, its author being the Egyptian monk Cosmas Indicopleustes. + Egypt was a great treasure-house of theologic thought to various religions + of antiquity, and Cosmas appears to have urged upon the early Church this + Egyptian idea of the construction of the world, just as another Egyptian + ecclesiastic, Athanasius, urged upon the Church the Egyptian idea of a + triune deity ruling the world. According to Cosmas, the earth is a + parallelogram, flat, and surrounded by four seas. It is four hundred days' + journey long and two hundred broad. At the outer edges of these four seas + arise massive walls closing in the whole structure and supporting the + firmament or vault of the heavens, whose edges are cemented to the walls. + These walls inclose the earth and all the heavenly bodies. + </p> + <p> + The whole of this theologico-scientific structure was built most carefully + and, as was then thought, most scripturally. Starting with the expression + applied in the ninth chapter of Hebrews to the tabernacle in the desert, + Cosmas insists, with other interpreters of his time, that it gives the key + to the whole construction of the world. The universe is, therefore, made + on the plan of the Jewish tabernacle—boxlike and oblong. Going into + details, he quotes the sublime words of Isaiah: "It is He that sitteth + upon the circle of the earth;... that stretcheth out the heavens like a + curtain, and spreadeth them out like a tent to dwell in"; and the passage + in Job which speaks of the "pillars of heaven." He works all this into his + system, and reveals, as he thinks, treasures of science. + </p> + <p> + This vast box is divided into two compartments, one above the other. In + the first of these, men live and stars move; and it extends up to the + first solid vault, or firmament, above which live the angels, a main part + of whose business it is to push and pull the sun and planets to and fro. + Next, he takes the text, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the + waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters," and other texts + from Genesis; to these he adds the text from the Psalms, "Praise him, ye + heaven of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens" then casts + all, and these growths of thought into his crucible together, finally + brings out the theory that over this first vault is a vast cistern + containing "the waters." He then takes the expression in Genesis regarding + the "windows of heaven" and establishes a doctrine regarding the + regulation of the rain, to the effect that the angels not only push and + pull the heavenly bodies to light the earth, but also open and close the + heavenly windows to water it. + </p> + <p> + To understand the surface of the earth, Cosmas, following the methods of + interpretation which Origen and other early fathers of the Church had + established, studies the table of shew-bread in the Jewish tabernacle. The + surface of this table proves to him that the earth is flat, and its + dimensions prove that the earth is twice as long as broad; its four + corners symbolize the four seasons; the twelve loaves of bread, the twelve + months; the hollow about the table proves that the ocean surrounds the + earth. To account for the movement of the sun, Cosmas suggests that at the + north of the earth is a great mountain, and that at night the sun is + carried behind this; but some of the commentators ventured to express a + doubt here: they thought that the sun was pushed into a pit at night and + pulled out in the morning. + </p> + <p> + Nothing can be more touching in its simplicity than Cosmas's summing up of + his great argument, He declares, "We say therefore with Isaiah that the + heaven embracing the universe is a vault, with Job that it is joined to + the earth, and with Moses that the length of the earth is greater than its + breadth." The treatise closes with rapturous assertions that not only + Moses and the prophets, but also angels and apostles, agree to the truth + of his doctrine, and that at the last day God will condemn all who do not + accept it. + </p> + <p> + Although this theory was drawn from Scripture, it was also, as we have + seen, the result of an evolution of theological thought begun long before + the scriptural texts on which it rested were written. It was not at all + strange that Cosmas, Egyptian as he was, should have received this old + Nile-born doctrine, as we see it indicated to-day in the structure of + Egyptian temples, and that he should have developed it by the aid of the + Jewish Scriptures; but the theological world knew nothing of this more + remote evolution from pagan germs; it was received as virtually inspired, + and was soon regarded as a fortress of scriptural truth. Some of the + foremost men in the Church devoted themselves to buttressing it with new + texts and throwing about it new outworks of theological reasoning; the + great body of the faithful considered it a direct gift from the Almighty. + Even in the later centuries of the Middle Ages John of San Geminiano made + a desperate attempt to save it. Like Cosmas, he takes the Jewish + tabernacle as his starting-point, and shows how all the newer ideas can be + reconciled with the biblical accounts of its shape, dimensions, and + furniture.(28) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (28) For a notice of the views of Cosmas in connection with those of +Lactantius, Augustine, St. John Chrysostom, and others, see Schoell, +Histoire de la Litterature Grecque, vol. vii, p. 37. The main scriptural +passages referred to are as follows: (1) Isaiah xi, 22; (2) Genesis +i, 6; (3) Genesis vii, 11; (4) Exodus xxiv, 10; (5) Job xxvi, 11, and +xxxvii, 18 (6) Psalm cxlviii, 4, and civ, 9; (7) Ezekiel i, 22-26. For +Cosmas's theory, see Montfaucon, Collectio Nova Patrum, Paris, 1706, +vol. ii, p.188; also pp. 298, 299. The text is illustrated with +engravings showing walls and solid vault (firmament), with the whole +apparatus of "fountains of the great deep," "windows of heaven," angels, +and the mountain behind which the sun is drawn. For reduction of one of +them, see Peschel, Gesschichte der Erdkunds, p. 98; also article +Maps, in Knight's Dictionary of Mechanics, New York, 1875. For curious +drawings showing Cosmas's scheme in a different way from that given by +Montfaucon, see extracts from a Vatican codex of the ninth century in +Garucci, Storia de l'Arte Christiana, vol. iii, pp. 70 et seq. For +a good discussion of Cosmas's ideas, see Santarem, Hist. de la +Cosmographie, vol. ii, pp. 8 et seq., and for a very thorough discussion +of its details, Kretschmer, as above. For still another theory, very +droll, and thought out on similar principles, see Mungo Park, cited +in De Morgan, Paradoxes, p. 309. For Cosmas's joyful summing up, see +Montfaucon, Collectio Nova Patrum, vol. ii, p. 255. For the curious +survival in the thirteenth century of the old idea of the "waters above +the heavens," see the story in Gervase of Tilbury, how in his time some +people coming out of church in England found an anchor let down by a +rope out of the heavens, how there came voices from sailors above trying +to loose the anchor, and, finally, how a sailor came down the rope, +who, on reaching the earth, died as if drowned in water. See Gervase of +Tilbury, Otia Imperialia, edit. Liebrecht, Hanover, 1856, Prima Decisio, +cap. xiii. The work was written about 1211. For John of San Germiniano, +see his Summa de Exemplis, lib. ix, cap. 43. For the Egyptian +Trinitarian views, see Sharpe, History of Egypt, vol. i, pp. 94, 102. +</pre> + <p> + From this old conception of the universe as a sort of house, with heaven + as its upper story and the earth as its ground floor, flowed important + theological ideas into heathen, Jewish, and Christian mythologies. Common + to them all are legends regarding attempts of mortals to invade the upper + apartment from the lower. Of such are the Greek legends of the Aloidae, + who sought to reach heaven by piling up mountains, and were cast down; the + Chaldean and Hebrew legends of the wicked who at Babel sought to build "a + tower whose top may reach heaven," which Jehovah went down from heaven to + see, and which he brought to naught by the "confusion of tongues"; the + Hindu legend of the tree which sought to grow into heaven and which Brahma + blasted; and the Mexican legend of the giants who sought to reach heaven + by building the Pyramid of Cholula, and who were overthrown by fire from + above. + </p> + <p> + Myths having this geographical idea as their germ developed in luxuriance + through thousands of years. Ascensions to heaven and descents from it, + "translations," "assumptions," "annunciations," mortals "caught up" into + it and returning, angels flying between it and the earth, thunderbolts + hurled down from it, mighty winds issuing from its corners, voices + speaking from the upper floor to men on the lower, temporary openings of + the floor of heaven to reveal the blessedness of the good, "signs and + wonders" hung out from it to warn the wicked, interventions of every kind—from + the heathen gods coming down on every sort of errand, and Jehovah coming + down to walk in Eden in the cool of the day, to St. Mark swooping down + into the market-place of Venice to break the shackles of a slave—all + these are but features in a vast evolution of myths arising largely from + this geographical germ. + </p> + <p> + Nor did this evolution end here. Naturally, in this view of things, if + heaven was a loft, hell was a cellar; and if there were ascensions into + one, there were descents into the other. Hell being so near, interferences + by its occupants with the dwellers of the earth just above were constant, + and form a vast chapter in medieval literature. Dante made this conception + of the location of hell still more vivid, and we find some forms of it + serious barriers to geographical investigation. Many a bold navigator, who + was quite ready to brave pirates and tempests, trembled at the thought of + tumbling with his ship into one of the openings into hell which a + widespread belief placed in the Atlantic at some unknown distance from + Europe. This terror among sailors was one of the main obstacles in the + great voyage of Columbus. In a medieval text-book, giving science the form + of a dialogue, occur the following question and answer: "Why is the sun so + red in the evening?" "Because he looketh down upon hell." + </p> + <p> + But the ancient germ of scientific truth in geography—the idea of + the earth's sphericity—still lived. Although the great majority of + the early fathers of the Church, and especially Lactantius, had sought to + crush it beneath the utterances attributed to Isaiah, David, and St. Paul, + the better opinion of Eudoxus and Aristotle could not be forgotten. + Clement of Alexandria and Origen had even supported it. Ambrose and + Augustine had tolerated it, and, after Cosmas had held sway a hundred + years, it received new life from a great churchman of southern Europe, + Isidore of Seville, who, however fettered by the dominant theology in many + other things, braved it in this. In the eighth century a similar + declaration was made in the north of Europe by another great Church + authority, Bede. Against the new life thus given to the old truth, the + sacred theory struggled long and vigorously but in vain. Eminent + authorities in later ages, like Albert the Great, St. Thomas Aquinas, + Dante, and Vincent of Beauvais, felt obliged to accept the doctrine of the + earth's sphericity, and as we approach the modern period we find its truth + acknowledged by the vast majority of thinking men. The Reformation did not + at first yield fully to this better theory. Luther, Melanchthon, and + Calvin were very strict in their adherence to the exact letter of + Scripture. Even Zwingli, broad as his views generally were, was closely + bound down in this matter, and held to the opinion of the fathers that a + great firmament, or floor, separated the heavens from the earth; that + above it were the waters and angels, and below it the earth and man. + </p> + <p> + The main scope given to independent thought on this general subject among + the Reformers was in a few minor speculations regarding the universe which + encompassed Eden, the exact character of the conversation of the serpent + with Eve, and the like. + </p> + <p> + In the times immediately following the Reformation matters were even + worse. The interpretations of Scripture by Luther and Calvin became as + sacred to their followers as the Scripture itself. When Calixt ventured, + in interpreting the Psalms, to question the accepted belief that "the + waters above the heavens" were contained in a vast receptacle upheld by a + solid vault, he was bitterly denounced as heretical. + </p> + <p> + In the latter part of the sixteenth century Musaeus interpreted the + accounts in Genesis to mean that first God made the heavens for the roof + or vault, and left it there on high swinging until three days later he put + the earth under it. But the new scientific thought as to the earth's form + had gained the day. The most sturdy believers were obliged to adjust + their, biblical theories to it as best they could.(29) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (29) For a discussion of the geographical views of Isidore and Bede, see +Santarem, Cosmographie, vol i, pp. 22-24. For the gradual acceptance +of the idea of the earth's sphericity after the eighth century, see +Kretschmer, pp. 51 et seq., where citations from a multitude of authors +are given. For the views of the Reformers, see Zockler, vol. i, pp. 679 +and 693. For Calixt, Musaeus, and others, ibid., pp. 673-677 and 761. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II. THE DELINEATION OF THE EARTH. + </h2> + <p> + Every great people of antiquity, as a rule, regarded its own central city + or most holy place as necessarily the centre of the earth. + </p> + <p> + The Chaldeans held that their "holy house of the gods" was the centre. The + Egyptians sketched the world under the form of a human figure, in which + Egypt was the heart, and the centre of it Thebes. For the Assyrians, it + was Babylon; for the Hindus, it was Mount Meru; for the Greeks, so far as + the civilized world was concerned, Olympus or the temple at Delphi; for + the modern Mohammedans, it is Mecca and its sacred stone; the Chinese, to + this day, speak of their empire as the "middle kingdom." It was in + accordance, then, with a simple tendency of human thought that the Jews + believed the centre of the world to be Jerusalem. + </p> + <p> + The book of Ezekiel speaks of Jerusalem as in the middle of the earth, and + all other parts of the world as set around the holy city. Throughout the + "ages of faith" this was very generally accepted as a direct revelation + from the Almighty regarding the earth's form. St. Jerome, the greatest + authority of the early Church upon the Bible, declared, on the strength of + this utterance of the prophet, that Jerusalem could be nowhere but at the + earth's centre; in the ninth century Archbishop Rabanus Maurus reiterated + the same argument; in the eleventh century Hugh of St. Victor gave to the + doctrine another scriptural demonstration; and Pope Urban, in his great + sermon at Clermont urging the Franks to the crusade, declared, "Jerusalem + is the middle point of the earth"; in the thirteenth century an + ecclesiastical writer much in vogue, the monk Caesarius of Heisterbach, + declared, "As the heart in the midst of the body, so is Jerusalem situated + in the midst of our inhabited earth,"—"so it was that Christ was + crucified at the centre of the earth." Dante accepted this view of + Jerusalem as a certainty, wedding it to immortal verse; and in the pious + book of travels ascribed to Sir John Mandeville, so widely read in the + Middle Ages, it is declared that Jerusalem is at the centre of the world, + and that a spear standing erect at the Holy Sepulchre casts no shadow at + the equinox. + </p> + <p> + Ezekiel's statement thus became the standard of orthodoxy to early + map-makers. The map of the world at Hereford Cathedral, the maps of Andrea + Bianco, Marino Sanuto, and a multitude of others fixed this view in men's + minds, and doubtless discouraged during many generations any scientific + statements tending to unbalance this geographical centre revealed in + Scripture.(30) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (30) For beliefs of various nations of antiquity that the earth's center +was in their most sacred place, see citations from Maspero, Charton, +Sayce, and others in Lethaby, Architecture, Mysticism, and Myth, chap. +iv. As to the Greeks, we have typical statements in the Eumenides of +Aeschylus, where the stone in the altar at Delphi is repeatedly called +"the earth's navel"—which is precisely the expression used regarding +Jerusalem in the Septuagint translation of Ezekiel (see below). The +proof texts on which the mediaeval geographers mainly relied as to the +form of the earth were Ezekiel v, 5, and xxxviii, 12. The progress +of geographical knowledge evidently caused them to be softened down +somewhat in our King James's version; but the first of them reads, in +the Vulgate, "Ista est Hierusalem, in medio gentium posui eam et in +circuitu ejus terrae"; and the second reads, in the Vulgate, "in medio +terrae," and in the Septuagint, [Greek]. That the literal centre of the +earth was understood, see proof in St. Jerome, Commentat. in Ezekiel, +lib. ii; and for general proof, see Leopardi, Saggio sopra gli errori +popolari degli antichi, pp. 207, 208. For Rabanus Maurus, see his De +Universo, lib. xii, cap. 4, in Migne, tome cxi, p. 339. For Hugh of +St. Victor, se his De Situ Terrarum, cap. ii. For Dante's belief, see +Inferno, canto xxxiv, 112-115: +</pre> + <p> + "E se' or sotto l'emisperio giunto, Ch' e opposito a quel che la gran + secca Coverchia, e sotto il cui colmo consunto Fu l'uom che nacque e visse + senza pecca." + </p> + <p> + For orthodox geography in the Middle Ages, see Wright's Essays on + Archaeology, vol. ii, chapter on the map of the world in Hereford + Cathedral; also the rude maps in Cardinal d'Ailly's Ymago Mundi; also + copies of maps of Marino Sanuto and others in Peschel, Erdkunde, p. 210; + also Munster, Fac Simile dell' Atlante di Andrea Bianco, Venezia, 1869. + And for discussions of the whole subject, see Satarem, vol. ii, p. 295, + vol. iii, pp. 71, 183, 184, and elsewhere. For a brief summary with + citations, see Eiken, Geschichte, etc., pp. 622, 623. + </p> + <p> + Nor did medieval thinkers rest with this conception. In accordance with + the dominant view that physical truth must be sought by theological + reasoning, the doctrine was evolved that not only the site of the cross on + Calvary marked the geographical centre of the world, but that on this very + spot had stood the tree which bore the forbidden fruit in Eden. Thus was + geography made to reconcile all parts of the great theologic plan. This + doctrine was hailed with joy by multitudes; and we find in the works of + medieval pilgrims to Palestine, again and again, evidence that this had + become precious truth to them, both in theology and geography. Even as + late as 1664 the eminent French priest Eugene Roger, in his published + travels in Palestine, dwelt upon the thirty-eighth chapter of Ezekiel, + coupled with a text from Isaiah, to prove that the exact centre of the + earth is a spot marked on the pavement of the Church of the Holy + Sepulchre, and that on this spot once stood the tree which bore the + forbidden fruit and the cross of Christ.(31) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (31) For the site of the cross on Calvary, as the point where stood "the +tree of the knowledge of good and evil" in Eden, at the centre of the +earth, see various Eastern travellers cited in Tobler; but especially +the travels of Bishop Arculf in the Holy Land, in Wright's Early Travels +in Palestine, p. 8; also Travels of Saewulf, ibid, p. 38; also Sir John +Mandeville, ibid., pp. 166, 167. For Roger, see his La Terre Saincte, +Paris, 1664, pp. 89-217, etc.; see also Quaresmio, Terrae Sanctae +Elucidatio, 1639, for similar view; and, for one narrative in which the +idea was developed into an amazing mass of pious myths, see Pilgrimage +of the Russian Abbot Daniel, edited by Sir C. W. Wilson, London, 1885, +p. 14. (The passage deserves to be quoted as an example of myth-making; +it is as follows: "At the time of our Lord's crucifixion, when he gave +up the ghost on the cross, the veil of the temple was rent, and the rock +above Adam's skull opened, and the blood and water which flowed from +Christ's side ran down through the fissure upon the skull, thus washing +away the sins of men.") +</pre> + <p> + Nor was this the only misconception which forced its way from our sacred + writings into medieval map-making: two others were almost as marked. First + of these was the vague terror inspired by Gog and Magog. Few passages in + the Old Testament are more sublime than the denunciation of these great + enemies by Ezekiel; and the well-known statement in the Apocalypse + fastened the Hebrew feeling regarding them with a new meaning into the + mind of the early Church: hence it was that the medieval map-makers took + great pains to delineate these monsters and their habitations on the maps. + For centuries no map was considered orthodox which did not show them. + </p> + <p> + The second conception was derived from the mention in our sacred books of + the "four winds." Hence came a vivid belief in their real existence, and + their delineation on the maps, generally as colossal heads with distended + cheeks, blowing vigorously toward Jerusalem. + </p> + <p> + After these conceptions had mainly disappeared we find here and there + evidences of the difficulty men found in giving up the scriptural idea of + direct personal interference by agents of Heaven in the ordinary phenomena + of Nature: thus, in a noted map of the sixteenth century representing the + earth as a sphere, there is at each pole a crank, with an angel + laboriously turning the earth by means of it; and, in another map, the + hand of the Almighty, thrust forth from the clouds, holds the earth + suspended by a rope and spins it with his thumb and fingers. Even as late + as the middle of the seventeenth century Heylin, the most authoritative + English geographer of the time, shows a like tendency to mix science and + theology. He warps each to help the other, as follows: "Water, making but + one globe with the earth, is yet higher than it. This appears, first, + because it is a body not so heavy; secondly, it is observed by sailors + that their ships move faster to the shore than from it, whereof no reason + can be given but the height of the water above the land; thirdly, to such + as stand on the shore the sea seems to swell into the form of a round hill + till it puts a bound upon our sight. Now that the sea, hovering thus over + and above the earth, doth not overwhelm it, can be ascribed only to his + Providence who 'hath made the waters to stand on an heap that they turn + not again to cover the earth.'"(32) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (32) For Gog and Magog, see Ezekiel xxxviii and xxxix, and Rev. xx, +8; and for the general subject, Toy, Judaism and Christianity, Boston, +1891, pp. 373, 374. For maps showing these two great terrors, and for +geographical discussion regarding them, see Lelewel, Geog. du Moyen +Age, Bruxelles, 1850, Atlas; also Ruge, Gesch. des Zeitalters der +Entdeckungen, Berlin, 1881, pp. 78, 79; also Peschel's Abhandlungen, +pp.28-35, and Gesch. der Erdkunde, p. 210. For representations on maps +of the "Four Winds," see Charton, Voyageurs, tome ii, p. 11; also Ruge, +as above, pp. 324, 325; also for a curious mixture of the scriptural +winds issuing from the bags of Aeolus, see a map of the twelfth century +in Leon Gautier, La Chevalerie, p. 153; and for maps showing additional +winds, see various editions of Ptolemy. For a map with angels turning +the earth by means of cranks at the poles, see Grynaeus, Novus Orbis, +Basileae, 1537. For the globe kept spinning by the Almighty, see J. +Hondius's map, 1589; and for Heylin, his first folio, 1652, p. 27. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III. THE INHABITANTS OF THE EARTH. + </h2> + <p> + Even while the doctrine of the sphericity of the earth was undecided, + another question had been suggested which theologians finally came to + consider of far greater importance. The doctrine of the sphericity of the + earth naturally led to thought regarding its inhabitants, and another + ancient germ was warmed into life—the idea of antipodes: of human + beings on the earth's opposite sides. + </p> + <p> + In the Greek and Roman world this idea had found supporters and opponents, + Cicero and Pliny being among the former, and Epicurus, Lucretius, and + Plutarch among the latter. Thus the problem came into the early Church + unsolved. + </p> + <p> + Among the first churchmen to take it up was, in the East, St. Gregory + Nazianzen, who showed that to sail beyond Gibraltar was impossible; and, + in the West, Lactantius, who asked: "Is there any one so senseless as to + believe that there are men whose footsteps are higher than their heads?... + that the crops and trees grow downward?... that the rains and snow and + hail fall upward toward the earth?... I am at a loss what to say of those + who, when they have once erred, steadily persevere in their folly and + defend one vain thing by another." + </p> + <p> + In all this contention by Gregory and Lactantius there was nothing to be + especially regretted, for, whatever their motive, they simply supported + their inherited belief on grounds of natural law and probability. + </p> + <p> + Unfortunately, the discussion was not long allowed to rest on these + scientific and philosophical grounds; other Christian thinkers followed, + who in their ardour adduced texts of Scripture, and soon the question had + become theological; hostility to the belief in antipodes became dogmatic. + The universal Church was arrayed against it, and in front of the vast + phalanx stood, to a man, the fathers. + </p> + <p> + To all of them this idea seemed dangerous; to most of them it seemed + damnable. St. Basil and St. Ambrose were tolerant enough to allow that a + man might be saved who thought the earth inhabited on its opposite sides; + but the great majority of the fathers doubted the possibility of salvation + to such misbelievers. The great champion of the orthodox view was St. + Augustine. Though he seemed inclined to yield a little in regard to the + sphericity of the earth, he fought the idea that men exist on the other + side of it, saying that "Scripture speaks of no such descendants of Adam," + he insists that men could not be allowed by the Almighty to live there, + since if they did they could not see Christ at His second coming + descending through the air. But his most cogent appeal, one which we find + echoed from theologian to theologian during a thousand years afterward, is + to the nineteenth Psalm, and to its confirmation in the Epistle to the + Romans; to the words, "Their line is gone out through all the earth, and + their words to the end of the world." He dwells with great force on the + fact that St. Paul based one of his most powerful arguments upon this + declaration regarding the preachers of the gospel, and that he declared + even more explicitly that "Verily, their sound went into all the earth, + and their words unto the ends of the world." Thenceforth we find it + constantly declared that, as those preachers did not go to the antipodes, + no antipodes can exist; and hence that the supporters of this geographical + doctrine "give the lie direct to King David and to St. Paul, and therefore + to the Holy Ghost." Thus the great Bishop of Hippo taught the whole world + for over a thousand years that, as there was no preaching of the gospel on + the opposite side of the earth, there could be no human beings there. + </p> + <p> + The great authority of Augustine, and the cogency of his scriptural + argument, held the Church firmly against the doctrine of the antipodes; + all schools of interpretation were now agreed—the followers of the + allegorical tendencies of Alexandria, the strictly literal exegetes of + Syria, the more eclectic theologians of the West. For over a thousand + years it was held in the Church, "always, everywhere, and by all," that + there could not be human beings on the opposite sides of the earth, even + if the earth had opposite sides; and, when attacked by gainsayers, the + great mass of true believers, from the fourth century to the fifteenth, + simply used that opiate which had so soothing an effect on John Henry + Newman in the nineteenth century—securus judicat orbis terrarum. + </p> + <p> + Yet gainsayers still appeared. That the doctrine of the antipodes + continued to have life, is shown by the fact that in the sixth century + Procopius of Gaza attacks it with a tremendous argument. He declares that, + if there be men on the other side of the earth, Christ must have gone + there and suffered a second time to save them; and, therefore, that there + must have been there, as necessary preliminaries to his coming, a + duplicate Eden, Adam, serpent, and deluge. + </p> + <p> + Cosmas Indicopleustes also attacked the doctrine with especial bitterness, + citing a passage from St. Luke to prove that antipodes are theologically + impossible. + </p> + <p> + At the end of the sixth century came a man from whom much might be + expected—St. Isidore of Seville. He had pondered over ancient + thought in science, and, as we have seen, had dared proclaim his belief in + the sphericity of the earth; but with that he stopped. As to the + antipodes, the authority of the Psalmist, St. Paul, and St. Augustine + silences him; he shuns the whole question as unlawful, subjects reason to + faith, and declares that men can not and ought not to exist on opposite + sides of the earth.(33) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (33)For the opinions of Basil, Ambrose, and others, see Lecky, History +of Rationalism in Europe, New York, 1872, vol. i, p. 279. Also Letronne, +in Revue des Deux Mondes, March, 1834. For Lactantius, see citations +already given. For St. Augustine's opinion, see the De Civitate Dei, +xvi, 9, where this great father of the church shows that the antipodes +"nulla ratione credendum est." For the unanimity of the fathers against +the antipodes, see Zockler, vol. 1, p. 127. For a very naive summary, +see Joseph Acosta, Natural and Moral History of the Indies, Grimston's +translation, republished by the Hakluyt Soc., chaps. vii and viii; also +citations in Buckle's Posthumous Works, vol. ii, p. 645. For Procopius +of Gaza, see Kretschmer, p. 55. See also, on the general subject, +Peschel, Geschichte der Erdkunde, pp. 96-97. For Isidore, see citations +already given. To understand the embarrassment caused by these +utterances of the fathers to scientific men of a later period, see +letter of Agricola to Joachim Vadianus in 1514. Agricola asks Vadianus +to give his views regarding the antipodes, saying that he himself does +not know what to do, between the fathers on the one side and the +learned men of modern times on the other. On the other hand, for the +embarrassment caused to the Church by this mistaken zeal of the +fathers, see Kepler's references and Fromund's replies; also De Morgan, +Paradoxes, p. 58. Kepler appears to have taken great delight in throwing +the views of Lactantius into the teeth of his adversaries. +</pre> + <p> + Under such pressure this scientific truth seems to have disappeared for + nearly two hundred years; but by the eighth century the sphericity of the + earth had come to be generally accepted among the leaders of thought, and + now the doctrine of the antipodes was again asserted by a bishop, Virgil + of Salzburg. + </p> + <p> + There then stood in Germany, in those first years of the eighth century, + one of the greatest and noblest of men—St. Boniface. His learning + was of the best then known. In labours he was a worthy successor of the + apostles; his genius for Christian work made him unwillingly primate of + Germany; his devotion to duty led him willingly to martyrdom. There sat, + too, at that time, on the papal throne a great Christian statesman—Pope + Zachary. Boniface immediately declared against the revival of such a + heresy as the doctrine of the antipodes; he stigmatized it as an assertion + that there are men beyond the reach of the appointed means of salvation; + he attacked Virgil, and called on Pope Zachary for aid. + </p> + <p> + The Pope, as the infallible teacher of Christendom, made a strong + response. He cited passages from the book of Job and the Wisdom of Solomon + against the doctrine of the antipodes; he declared it "perverse, + iniquitous, and against Virgil's own soul," and indicated a purpose of + driving him from his bishopric. Whether this purpose was carried out or + not, the old theological view, by virtue of the Pope's divinely ordered + and protected "inerrancy," was re-established, and the doctrine that the + earth has inhabitants on but one of its sides became more than ever + orthodox, and precious in the mind of the Church.(34) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (34) For Virgil of Salzburg, see Neander's History of the Christian +Church, Torrey's translation, vol. iii, p. 63; also Herzog, +Real-Encyklopadie, etc., recent edition by Prof. Hauck, s. v. Virgilius; +also Kretschmer, pp. 56-58; also Whewell, vol. i, p. 197; also De +Morgan, Budget of Paradoxes, pp. 24-26. For very full notes as to pagan +and Christian advocates of the doctrine of the sphericity of the earth +and of the antipodes, and for extract from Zachary's letter, see Migne, +Patrologia, vol. vi, p. 426, and vol. xli, p. 487. For St. Boniface's +part, see Bonifacii Epistolae, ed. Giles, i, 173. Berger de Xivrey, +Traditions Teratologiques, pp. 186-188, makes a curious attempt to show +that Pope Zachary denounced the wrong man; that the real offender was +a Roman poet—in the sixth book of the Aeneid and the first book of the +Georgics. +</pre> + <p> + This decision seems to have been regarded as final, and five centuries + later the great encyclopedist of the Middle Ages, Vincent of Beauvais, + though he accepts the sphericity of the earth, treats the doctrine of the + antipodes as disproved, because contrary to Scripture. Yet the doctrine + still lived. Just as it had been previously revived by William of Conches + and then laid to rest, so now it is somewhat timidly brought out in the + thirteenth century by no less a personage than Albert the Great, the most + noted man of science in that time. But his utterances are perhaps + purposely obscure. Again it disappears beneath the theological wave, and a + hundred years later Nicolas d'Oresme, geographer of the King of France, a + light of science, is forced to yield to the clear teaching of the + Scripture as cited by St. Augustine. + </p> + <p> + Nor was this the worst. In Italy, at the beginning of the fourteenth + century, the Church thought it necessary to deal with questions of this + sort by rack and fagot. In 1316 Peter of Abano, famous as a physician, + having promulgated this with other obnoxious doctrines in science, only + escaped the Inquisition by death; and in 1327 Cecco d'Ascoli, noted as an + astronomer, was for this and other results of thought, which brought him + under suspicion of sorcery, driven from his professorship at Bologna and + burned alive at Florence. Nor was this all his punishment: Orcagna, whose + terrible frescoes still exist on the walls of the Campo Santo at Pisa, + immortalized Cecco by representing him in the flames of hell.(35) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (35) For Vincent of Beauvais and the antipode, see his Speculum +Naturale, Book VII, with citations from St. Augustine, De Civitate +Dei, cap. xvi. For Albert the Great's doctrine regarding the antipodes, +compare Kretschmer, as above, with Eicken, Geschichte, etc., p. 621. +Kretschmer finds that Albert supports the doctrine, and Eicken finds +that he denies it—a fair proof that Albert was not inclined to state +his views with dangerous clearness. For D'Oresme, see Santerem, Histoire +de la Cosmographie, vol. i, p. 142. For Peter of Abano, or Apono, as he +is often called, see Tiraboschi, also Guinguene, vol. ii, p. 293; +also Naude, Histoire des Grands Hommes soupconnes de Magie. For Cecco +d'Ascoli, see Montucla, Histoire de Mathematiques, i, 528; also Daunou, +Etudes Historiques, vol. vi, p. 320; also Kretschmer, p. 59. Concerning +Orcagna's representation of Cecco in the flames of hell, see Renan, +Averroes et l'Averroisme, Paris, 1867, p. 328. +</pre> + <p> + Years rolled on, and there came in the fifteenth century one from whom the + world had a right to expect much. Pierre d'Ailly, by force of thought and + study, had risen to be Provost of the College of St. Die in Lorraine; his + ability had made that little village a centre of scientific thought for + all Europe, and finally made him Archbishop of Cambray and a cardinal. + Toward the end of the fifteenth century was printed what Cardinal d'Ailly + had written long before as a summing up of his best thought and research—the + collection of essays known as the Ymago Mundi. It gives us one of the most + striking examples in history of a great man in theological fetters. As he + approaches this question he states it with such clearness that we expect + to hear him assert the truth; but there stands the argument of St. + Augustine; there, too, stand the biblical texts on which it is founded—the + text from the Psalms and the explicit declaration of St. Paul to the + Romans, "Their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the + ends of the world." D'Ailly attempts to reason, but he is overawed, and + gives to the world virtually nothing. + </p> + <p> + Still, the doctrine of the antipodes lived and moved: so much so that the + eminent Spanish theologian Tostatus, even as late as the age of Columbus, + felt called upon to protest against it as "unsafe." He had shaped the old + missile of St. Augustine into the following syllogism: "The apostles were + commanded to go into all the world and to preach the gospel to every + creature; they did not go to any such part of the world as the antipodes; + they did not preach to any creatures there: ergo, no antipodes exist." + </p> + <p> + The warfare of Columbus the world knows well: how the Bishop of Ceuta + worsted him in Portugal; how sundry wise men of Spain confronted him with + the usual quotations from the Psalms, from St. Paul, and from St. + Augustine; how, even after he was triumphant, and after his voyage had + greatly strengthened the theory of the earth's sphericity, with which the + theory of the antipodes was so closely connected, the Church by its + highest authority solemnly stumbled and persisted in going astray. In 1493 + Pope Alexander VI, having been appealed to as an umpire between the claims + of Spain and Portugal to the newly discovered parts of the earth, issued a + bull laying down upon the earth's surface a line of demarcation between + the two powers. This line was drawn from north to south a hundred leagues + west of the Azores; and the Pope in the plenitude of his knowledge + declared that all lands discovered east of this line should belong to the + Portuguese, and all west of it should belong to the Spaniards. This was + hailed as an exercise of divinely illuminated power by the Church; but + difficulties arose, and in 1506 another attempt was made by Pope Julius II + to draw the line three hundred and seventy leagues west of the Cape Verde + Islands. This, again, was supposed to bring divine wisdom to settle the + question; but, shortly, overwhelming difficulties arose; for the + Portuguese claimed Brazil, and, of course, had no difficulty in showing + that they could reach it by sailing to the east of the line, provided they + sailed long enough. The lines laid down by Popes Alexander and Julius may + still be found upon the maps of the period, but their bulls have quietly + passed into the catalogue of ludicrous errors. + </p> + <p> + Yet the theological barriers to this geographical truth yielded but + slowly. Plain as it had become to scholars, they hesitated to declare it + to the world at large. Eleven hundred years had passed since St. Augustine + had proved its antagonism to Scripture, when Gregory Reysch gave forth his + famous encyclopaedia, the Margarita Philosophica. Edition after edition + was issued, and everywhere appeared in it the orthodox statements; but + they were evidently strained to the breaking point; for while, in treating + of the antipodes, Reysch refers respectfully to St. Augustine as objecting + to the scientific doctrine, he is careful not to cite Scripture against + it, and not less careful to suggest geographical reasoning in favour of + it. + </p> + <p> + But in 1519 science gains a crushing victory. Magellan makes his famous + voyage. He proves the earth to be round, for his expedition + circumnavigates it; he proves the doctrine of the antipodes, for his + shipmates see the peoples of the antipodes. Yet even this does not end the + war. Many conscientious men oppose the doctrine for two hundred years + longer. Then the French astronomers make their measurements of degrees in + equatorial and polar regions, and add to their proofs that of the + lengthened pendulum. When this was done, when the deductions of science + were seen to be established by the simple test of measurement, beautifully + and perfectly, and when a long line of trustworthy explorers, including + devoted missionaries, had sent home accounts of the antipodes, then, and + then only, this war of twelve centuries ended. + </p> + <p> + Such was the main result of this long war; but there were other results + not so fortunate. The efforts of Eusebius, Basil, and Lactantius to deaden + scientific thought; the efforts of Augustine to combat it; the efforts of + Cosmas to crush it by dogmatism; the efforts of Boniface and Zachary to + crush it by force, conscientious as they all were, had resulted simply in + impressing upon many leading minds the conviction that science and + religion are enemies. + </p> + <p> + On the other hand, what was gained by the warriors of science for + religion? Certainly a far more worthy conception of the world, and a far + more ennobling conception of that power which pervades and directs it. + Which is more consistent with a great religion, the cosmography of Cosmas + or that of Isaac Newton? Which presents a nobler field for religious + thought, the diatribes of Lactantius or the calm statements of + Humboldt?(36) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (36) For D'Ailly's acceptance of St. Augustine's argument, see the Ymago +Mundi, cap. vii. For Tostatus, see Zockler, vol. i, pp. 467, 468. He +based his opposition on Romans x, 18. For Columbus, see Winsor, +Fiske, and Adams; also Humboldt, Histoire de la Geographie du Nouveau +Continent. For the bull of Alexander VI, see Daunou, Etudes Historiques, +vol. ii, p. 417; also Peschel, Zeitalter der Entdeckungen, Book II, +chap. iv. The text of the bull is given with an English translation +in Arber's reprint of The First Three English Books on America, etc., +Birmingham, 1885, pp. 201-204; also especially Peschel, Die Theilung der +Erde unter Papst Alexander VI and Julius II, Leipsic, 1871, pp. 14 +et seq. For remarks on the power under which the line was drawn by +Alexander VI, see Mamiani, Del Papato nei Tre Ultimi Secoli, p. 170. +For maps showing lines of division, see Kohl, Die beiden altesten +General-Karten von Amerika, Weimar, 1860, where maps of 1527 and 1529 +are reproduced; also Mercator, Atlas, tenth edition, Amsterdam, 1628, +pp. 70, 71. For latest discussion on The Demarcation Line of Alexander +VI, see E. G. Bourne in Yale Review, May, 1892. For the Margarita +Philosophica, see the editions of 1503, 1509, 1517, lib. vii, cap. 48. +For the effect of Magellan's voyages, and the reluctance to yield to +proof, see Henri Martin, Histoire de France, vol. xiv, p. 395; St. +Martin's Histoire de la Geographie, p. 369; Peschel, Geschichte des +Zeitalters der Entdeckungen, concluding chapters; and for an admirable +summary, Draper, Hist. Int. Devel. of Europe, pp. 451-453; also an +interesting passage in Sir Thomas Brown's Vulgar and Common Errors, Book +I, chap. vi; also a striking passage in Acosta, chap. ii. For general +statement as to supplementary proof by measurement of degrees and by +pendulum, see Somerville, Phys. Geog., chap. i, par. 6, note; also +Humboldt, Cosmos, vol. ii, p. 736, and vol. v, pp. 16, 32; also +Montucla, iv, 138. As to the effect of travel, see Acosta's history +above cited. The good missionary says, in Grimston's quaint translation, +"Whatsoever Lactantius saith, wee that live now at Peru, and inhabite +that parte of the worlde which is opposite to Asia and theire Antipodes, +finde not ourselves to bee hanging in the aire, our heades downward and +our feete on high." +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IV. THE SIZE OF THE EARTH. + </h2> + <p> + But at an early period another subject in geography had stirred the minds + of thinking men—THE EARTH'S SIZE. Various ancient investigators had + by different methods reached measurements more or less near the truth; + these methods were continued into the Middle Ages, supplemented by new + thought, and among the more striking results were those obtained by Roger + Bacon and Gerbert, afterward Pope Sylvester II. They handed down to + after-time the torch of knowledge, but, as their reward among their + contemporaries, they fell under the charge of sorcery. + </p> + <p> + Far more consonant with the theological spirit of the Middle Ages was a + solution of the problem from Scripture, and this solution deserves to be + given as an example of a very curious theological error, chancing to + result in the establishment of a great truth. The second book of Esdras, + which among Protestants is placed in the Apocrypha, was held by many of + the foremost men of the ancient Church as fully inspired: though Jerome + looked with suspicion on this book, it was regarded as prophetic by + Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and Ambrose, and the Church acquiesced + in that view. In the Eastern Church it held an especially high place, and + in the Western Church, before the Reformation, was generally considered by + the most eminent authorities to be part of the sacred canon. In the sixth + chapter of this book there is a summary of the works of creation, and in + it occur the following verses: + </p> + <p> + "Upon the third day thou didst command that the waters should be gathered + in the seventh part of the earth; six parts hast thou dried up and kept + them to the intent that of these some, being planted of God and tilled, + might serve thee." + </p> + <p> + "Upon the fifth day thou saidst unto the seventh part where the waters + were gathered, that it should bring forth living creatures, fowls and + fishes, and so it came to pass." + </p> + <p> + These statements were reiterated in other verses, and were naturally + considered as of controlling authority. + </p> + <p> + Among the scholars who pondered on this as on all things likely to + increase knowledge was Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly. As we have seen, this + great man, while he denied the existence of the antipodes, as St. + Augustine had done, believed firmly in the sphericity of the earth, and, + interpreting these statements of the book of Esdras in connection with + this belief, he held that, as only one seventh of the earth's surface was + covered by water, the ocean between the west coast of Europe and the east + coast of Asia could not be very wide. Knowing, as he thought, the extent + of the land upon the globe, he felt that in view of this divinely + authorized statement the globe must be much smaller, and the land of + "Zipango," reached by Marco Polo, on the extreme east coast of Asia, much + nearer than had been generally believed. + </p> + <p> + On this point he laid stress in his great work, the Ymago Mundi, and an + edition of it having been published in the days when Columbus was thinking + most closely upon the problem of a westward voyage, it naturally exercised + much influence upon his reasonings. Among the treasures of the library at + Seville, there is nothing more interesting than a copy of this work + annotated by Columbus himself: from this very copy it was that Columbus + obtained confirmation of his belief that the passage across the ocean to + Marco Polo's land of Zipango in Asia was short. But for this error, based + upon a text supposed to be inspired, it is unlikely that Columbus could + have secured the necessary support for his voyage. It is a curious fact + that this single theological error thus promoted a series of voyages which + completely destroyed not only this but every other conception of geography + based upon the sacred writings.(37) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (37) For this error, so fruitful in discovery, see D'Ailly, Ymago Mundi; +the passage referred to is fol. 12 verso. For the passage from Esdras, +see chap. vi, verses 42, 47, 50, and 52; see also Zockler, Geschichte +der Beziehungen zwischen Theologie und Naturweissenschaft, vol. i, +p. 461. For one of the best recent statements, see Ruge, Gesch. des +Zeitalters der Entdeckungen, Berlin, 1882, pp. 221 et seq. For a letter +of Columbus acknowledging his indebtedness to this mistake in Esdras, +see Navarrete, Viajes y Descubrimientos, Madrid, 1825, tome i, pp. 242, +264; also Humboldt, Hist. de la Geographie du Nouveau Continent, vol. i, +pp. 68, 69. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + V. THE CHARACTER OF THE EARTH'S SURFACE. + </h2> + <p> + It would be hardly just to dismiss the struggle for geographical truth + without referring to one passage more in the history of the Protestant + Church, for it shows clearly the difficulties in the way of the simplest + statement of geographical truth which conflicted with the words of the + sacred books. + </p> + <p> + In the year 1553 Michael Servetus was on trial for his life at Geneva on + the charge of Arianism. Servetus had rendered many services to scientific + truth, and one of these was an edition of Ptolemy's Geography, in which + Judea was spoken of, not as "a land flowing with milk and honey," but, in + strict accordance with the truth, as, in the main, meagre, barren, and + inhospitable. In his trial this simple statement of geographical fact was + used against him by his arch-enemy John Calvin with fearful power. In vain + did Servetus plead that he had simply drawn the words from a previous + edition of Ptolemy; in vain did he declare that this statement was a + simple geographical truth of which there were ample proofs: it was + answered that such language "necessarily inculpated Moses, and grievously + outraged the Holy Ghost."(38) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (38) For Servetus's geographical offense, see Rilliet, Relation du +Proces criminel contre Michel Servet d'apres les Documents originaux, +Geneva, 1844, pp. 42,43; also Willis, Servetus and Calvin, London, 1877, +p. 325. The passage condemned is in the Ptolemy of 1535, fol. 41. It was +discreetly retrenched in a reprint of the same edition. +</pre> + <p> + In summing up the action of the Church upon geography, we must say, then, + that the dogmas developed in strict adherence to Scripture and the + conceptions held in the Church during many centuries "always, every where, + and by all," were, on the whole, steadily hostile to truth; but it is only + just to make a distinction here between the religious and the theological + spirit. To the religious spirit are largely due several of the noblest + among the great voyages of discovery. A deep longing to extend the realms + of Christianity influenced the minds of Prince John of Portugal, in his + great series of efforts along the African coast; of Vasco da Gama, in his + circumnavigation of the Cape of Good Hope; of Magellan, in his voyage + around the world; and doubtless found a place among the more worldly + motives of Columbus.(39) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (39) As to the earlier mixture in the motives of Columbus, it may be +well to compare with the earlier biographies the recent ones by Dr. +Winsor and President Adams. +</pre> + <p> + Thus, in this field, from the supremacy accorded to theology, we find + resulting that tendency to dogmatism which has shown itself in all ages + the deadly foe not only of scientific inquiry but of the higher religious + spirit itself, while from the love of truth for truth's sake, which has + been the inspiration of all fruitful work in science, nothing but + advantage has ever resulted to religion. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER III. ASTRONOMY. + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0014" id="link2H_4_0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I. THE OLD SACRED THEORY OF THE UNIVERSE. + </h2> + <p> + The next great series of battles was fought over the relations of the + visible heavens to the earth. + </p> + <p> + In the early Church, in view of the doctrine so prominent in the New + Testament, that the earth was soon to be destroyed, and that there were to + be "new heavens and a new earth," astronomy, like other branches of + science, was generally looked upon as futile. Why study the old heavens + and the old earth, when they were so soon to be replaced with something + infinitely better? This feeling appears in St. Augustine's famous + utterance, "What concern is it to me whether the heavens as a sphere + inclose the earth in the middle of the world or overhang it on either + side?" + </p> + <p> + As to the heavenly bodies, theologians looked on them as at best only + objects of pious speculation. Regarding their nature the fathers of the + Church were divided. Origen, and others with him, thought them living + beings possessed of souls, and this belief was mainly based upon the + scriptural vision of the morning stars. singing together, and upon the + beautiful appeal to the "stars and light" in the song of the three + children—the Benedicite—which the Anglican communion has so + wisely retained in its Liturgy. + </p> + <p> + Other fathers thought the stars abiding-places of the angels, and that + stars were moved by angels. The Gnostics thought the stars spiritual + beings governed by angels, and appointed not to cause earthly events but + to indicate them. + </p> + <p> + As to the heavens in general, the prevailing view in the Church was based + upon the scriptural declarations that a solid vault—a "firmament"—was + extended above the earth, and that the heavenly bodies were simply lights + hung within it. This was for a time held very tenaciously. St. + Philastrius, in his famous treatise on heresies, pronounced it a heresy to + deny that the stars are brought out by God from his treasure-house and + hung in the sky every evening; any other view he declared "false to the + Catholic faith." This view also survived in the sacred theory established + so firmly by Cosmas in the sixth century. Having established his plan of + the universe upon various texts in the Old and New Testaments, and having + made it a vast oblong box, covered by the solid "firmament," he brought in + additional texts from Scripture to account for the planetary movements, + and developed at length the theory that the sun and planets are moved and + the "windows of heaven" opened and shut by angels appointed for that + purpose. + </p> + <p> + How intensely real this way of looking at the universe was, we find in the + writings of St. Isidore, the greatest leader of orthodox thought in the + seventh century. He affirms that since the fall of man, and on account of + it, the sun and moon shine with a feebler light; but he proves from a text + in Isaiah that when the world shall be fully redeemed these "great lights" + will shine again in all their early splendour. But, despite these + authorities and their theological finalities, the evolution of scientific + thought continued, its main germ being the geocentric doctrine—the + doctrine that the earth is the centre, and that the sun and planets + revolve about it.(40) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (40) For passage cited from Clement of Alexandria, see English +translation, Edinburgh, 1869, vol. ii, p. 368; also the Miscellanies, +Book V, cap. vi. For typical statements by St. Augustine, see De Genesi, +ii, cap. ix, in Migne, Patr. Lat., tome xxiv, pp. 270-271. For Origen's +view, see the De Principiis, lib. i, cap. vii; see also Leopardi's +Errori Populari, cap. xi; also Wilson's Selections from the Prophetic +Scriptures in Ante-Nicene Library, p. 132. For Philo Judaeus, see On the +Creation of the World, chaps. xviii and xix, and On Monarchy, chap. i. +For St. Isidore, see the De Ordine Creaturarum, cap v, in Migne, Patr. +Lat., lxxxiii, pp. 923-925; also 1000, 1001. For Philastrius, see the +De Hoeresibus, chap. cxxxiii, in Migne, tome xii, p. 1264. For Cosmas's +view, see his Topographia Christiana, in Montfaucon, Col. Nov. Patrum, +ii, p. 150, and elsewhere as cited in my chapter on Geography. +</pre> + <p> + This doctrine was of the highest respectability: it had been developed at + a very early period, and had been elaborated until it accounted well for + the apparent movements of the heavenly bodies; its final name, "Ptolemaic + theory," carried weight; and, having thus come from antiquity into the + Christian world, St. Clement of Alexandria demonstrated that the altar in + the Jewish tabernacle was "a symbol of the earth placed in the middle of + the universe": nothing more was needed; the geocentric theory was fully + adopted by the Church and universally held to agree with the letter and + spirit of Scripture.(41) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (41) As to the respectibility of the geocentric theory, etc., see +Grote's Plato, vol. iii, p. 257; also Sir G. C. Lewis's Astronomy of the +Ancients, chap. iii, sec. 1, for a very thoughtful statement of Plato's +view, and differing from ancient statements. For plausible elaboration +of it, and for supposed agreement of the Scripture with it, see +Fromundus, Anti-Aristarchus, Antwerp, 1631; also Melanchthon's Initia +Doctrinae Physicae. For an admirable statement of the theological view +of the geocentric theory, antipodes, etc., see Eicken, Geschichte und +System der mittelalterlichen Weltanschauung, pp. 618 et seq. +</pre> + <p> + Wrought into this foundation, and based upon it, there was developed in + the Middle Ages, mainly out of fragments of Chaldean and other early + theories preserved in the Hebrew Scriptures, a new sacred system of + astronomy, which became one of the great treasures of the universal Church—the + last word of revelation. + </p> + <p> + Three great men mainly reared this structure. First was the unknown who + gave to the world the treatises ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite. It + was unhesitatingly believed that these were the work of St. Paul's + Athenian convert, and therefore virtually of St. Paul himself. Though now + known to be spurious, they were then considered a treasure of inspiration, + and an emperor of the East sent them to an emperor of the West as the most + worthy of gifts. In the ninth century they were widely circulated in + western Europe, and became a fruitful source of thought, especially on the + whole celestial hierarchy. Thus the old ideas of astronomy were vastly + developed, and the heavenly hosts were classed and named in accordance + with indications scattered through the sacred Scriptures. + </p> + <p> + The next of these three great theologians was Peter Lombard, professor at + the University of Paris. About the middle of the twelfth century he gave + forth his collection of Sentences, or Statements by the Fathers, and this + remained until the end of the Middle Ages the universal manual of + theology. In it was especially developed the theological view of man's + relation to the universe. The author tells the world: "Just as man is made + for the sake of God—that is, that he may serve Him,—so the + universe is made for the sake of man—that is, that it may serve HIM; + therefore is man placed at the middle point of the universe, that he may + both serve and be served." + </p> + <p> + The vast significance of this view, and its power in resisting any real + astronomical science, we shall see, especially in the time of Galileo. + </p> + <p> + The great triad of thinkers culminated in St. Thomas Aquinas—the + sainted theologian, the glory of the mediaeval Church, the "Angelic + Doctor," the most marvellous intellect between Aristotle and Newton; he to + whom it was believed that an image of the Crucified had spoken words + praising his writings. Large of mind, strong, acute, yet just—even + more than just—to his opponents, he gave forth, in the latter half + of the thirteenth century, his Cyclopaedia of Theology, the Summa + Theologica. In this he carried the sacred theory of the universe to its + full development. With great power and clearness he brought the whole vast + system, material and spiritual, into its relations to God and man.(42) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (42) For the beliefs of Chaldean astronomers in revolving spheres +carrying sun, moon, and planets, in a solid firmament supporting the +celestial waters, and in angels as giving motion to the planets, see +Lenormant; also Lethaby, 13-21; also Schroeder, Jensen, Lukas, et al. +For the contribution of the pseudo-Dionysius to mediaeval cosmology, see +Dion. Areopagita, De Coelesti Hierarchia, vers. Joan. Scoti, in Migne, +Patr. Lat., cxxii. For the contribution of Peter Lombard, see Pet. +Lomb., Libr. Sent., II, i, 8,-IV, i, 6, 7, in Migne, tome 192. For the +citations from St. Thomas Aquinas, see the Summa, ed. Migne, especially +Pars I, Qu. 70, (tome i, pp. 1174-1184); also Quaestio 47, Art. iii. For +good general statement, see Milman, Latin Christianity, iv, 191 et seq.; +and for relation of Cosmas to these theologians of western Europe, see +Milman, as above, viii, 228, note. +</pre> + <p> + Thus was the vast system developed by these three leaders of mediaeval + thought; and now came the man who wrought it yet more deeply into European + belief, the poet divinely inspired who made the system part of the world's + LIFE. Pictured by Dante, the empyrean and the concentric heavens, + paradise, purgatory, and hell, were seen of all men; the God Triune, + seated on his throne upon the circle of the heavens, as real as the Pope + seated in the chair of St. Peter; the seraphim, cherubim, and thrones, + surrounding the Almighty, as real as the cardinals surrounding the Pope; + the three great orders of angels in heaven, as real as the three great + orders, bishops, priests, and deacons, on earth; and the whole system of + spheres, each revolving within the one above it, and all moving about the + earth, subject to the primum mobile, as real as the feudal system of + western Europe, subject to the Emperor.(43) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (43) For the central sun, hierarchy of angels, and concentric circles, +see Dante, Paradiso, canto xxviii. For the words of St. Thomas Aquinas, +showing to Virgil and Dante the great theologians of the Middle Ages, +see canto x, and in Dean Plumptre's translation, vol. ii, pp. 56 et +seq.; also Botta, Dante, pp. 350, 351. As to Dante's deep religious +feeling and belief in his own divine mission, see J. R. Lowell, Among +my Books, vol. i, p. 36. For a remarkable series of coloured engravings, +showing Dante's whole cosmology, see La Materia della Divina Comedia di +Dante dichiriata in vi tavole, da Michelangelo Caetani, published by the +monks of Monte Cassino, to whose kindness I am indebted for my copy. +</pre> + <p> + Let us look into this vast creation—the highest achievement of + theology—somewhat more closely. + </p> + <p> + Its first feature shows a development out of earlier theological ideas. + The earth is no longer a flat plain inclosed by four walls and solidly + vaulted above, as theologians of previous centuries had believed it, under + the inspiration of Cosmas; it is no longer a mere flat disk, with sun, + moon, and stars hung up to give it light, as the earlier cathedral + sculptors had figured it; it has become a globe at the centre of the + universe. Encompassing it are successive transparent spheres, rotated by + angels about the earth, and each carrying one or more of the heavenly + bodies with it: that nearest the earth carrying the moon; the next, + Mercury; the next, Venus; the next, the Sun; the next three, Mars, + Jupiter, and Saturn; the eighth carrying the fixed stars. The ninth was + the primum mobile, and inclosing all was the tenth heaven—the + Empyrean. This was immovable—the boundary between creation and the + great outer void; and here, in a light which no one can enter, the Triune + God sat enthroned, the "music of the spheres" rising to Him as they moved. + Thus was the old heathen doctrine of the spheres made Christian. + </p> + <p> + In attendance upon the Divine Majesty, thus enthroned, are vast hosts of + angels, who are divided into three hierarchies, one serving in the + empyrean, one in the heavens, between the empyrean and the earth, and one + on the earth. + </p> + <p> + Each of these hierarchies is divided into three choirs, or orders; the + first, into the orders of Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones; and the main + occupation of these is to chant incessantly—to "continually cry" the + divine praises. + </p> + <p> + The order of Thrones conveys God's will to the second hierarchy, which + serves in the movable heavens. This second hierarchy is also made up of + three orders. The first of these, the order of Dominions, receives the + divine commands; the second, the order of Powers, moves the heavens, sun, + moon, planets, and stars, opens and shuts the "windows of heaven," and + brings to pass all other celestial phenomena; the third, the order of + Empire, guards the others. + </p> + <p> + The third and lowest hierarchy is also made up of three orders. First of + these are the Principalities, the guardian spirits of nations and + kingdoms. Next come Archangels; these protect religion, and bear the + prayers of the saints to the foot of God's throne. Finally come Angels; + these care for earthly affairs in general, one being appointed to each + mortal, and others taking charge of the qualities of plants, metals, + stones, and the like. Throughout the whole system, from the great Triune + God to the lowest group of angels, we see at work the mystic power + attached to the triangle and sacred number three—the same which gave + the triune idea to ancient Hindu theology, which developed the triune + deities in Egypt, and which transmitted this theological gift to the + Christian world, especially through the Egyptian Athanasius. + </p> + <p> + Below the earth is hell. This is tenanted by the angels who rebelled under + the lead of Lucifer, prince of the seraphim—the former favourite of + the Trinity; but, of these rebellious angels, some still rove among the + planetary spheres, and give trouble to the good angels; others pervade the + atmosphere about the earth, carrying lightning, storm, drought, and hail; + others infest earthly society, tempting men to sin; but Peter Lombard and + St. Thomas Aquinas take pains to show that the work of these devils is, + after all, but to discipline man or to mete out deserved punishment. + </p> + <p> + All this vast scheme had been so riveted into the Ptolemaic view by the + use of biblical texts and theological reasonings that the resultant system + of the universe was considered impregnable and final. To attack it was + blasphemy. + </p> + <p> + It stood for centuries. Great theological men of science, like Vincent of + Beauvais and Cardinal d'Ailly, devoted themselves to showing not only that + it was supported by Scripture, but that it supported Scripture. Thus was + the geocentric theory embedded in the beliefs and aspirations, in the + hopes and fears, of Christendom down to the middle of the sixteenth + century.(44) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (44) For the earlier cosmology of Cosmas, with citations from +Montfaucon, see the chapter on Geography in this work. For the views +of mediaeval theologians, see foregoing notes in this chapter. For the +passages of Scripture on which the theological part of this structure +was developed, see especially Romans viii, 38; Ephesians i, 21; +Colossians i, 16 and ii, 15; and innumerable passages in the Old +Testament. As to the music of the spheres, see Dean Plumptre's Dante, +vol. ii, p. 4, note. For an admirable summing up of the mediaeval +cosmology in its relation to thought in general, see Rydberg, Magic of +the Middle Ages, chap. i, whose summary I have followed in the main. For +striking woodcuts showing the view taken of the successive heavens with +their choirs of angels, the earth being at the centre with the spheres +about it, and the Almighty on his throne above all, see the Neuremberg +Chronicle, ff. iv and v; its date is 1493. For charts showing the +continuance of this general view down to the beginning of the sixteenth +century, see the various editions of the Margarita Philosophica, from +that of 1503 onward, astronomical part. For interesting statements +regarding the Trinities of gods in ancient Egypt, see Sharpe, History of +Egypt, vol. i, pp. 94 and 101. The present writer once heard a lecture +in Cairo, from an eminent Scotch Doctor of Medicine, to account for the +ancient Hindu and Egyptian sacred threes and trinities. The lecturer's +theory was that, when Jehovah came down into the Garden of Eden and +walked with Adam in "the cool of the day," he explained his triune +character to Adam, and that from Adam it was spread abroad to the +various ancient nations. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0015" id="link2H_4_0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II. THE HELIOCENTRIC THEORY. + </h2> + <p> + But, on the other hand, there had been planted, long before, the germs of + a heliocentric theory. In the sixth century before our era, Pythagoras, + and after him Philolaus, had suggested the movement of the earth and + planets about a central fire; and, three centuries later, Aristarchus had + restated the main truth with striking precision. Here comes in a proof + that the antagonism between theological and scientific methods is not + confined to Christianity; for this statement brought upon Aristarchus the + charge of blasphemy, and drew after it a cloud of prejudice which hid the + truth for six hundred years. Not until the fifth century of our era did it + timidly appear in the thoughts of Martianus Capella: then it was again + lost to sight for a thousand years, until in the fifteenth century, + distorted and imperfect, it appeared in the writings of Cardinal Nicholas + de Cusa. + </p> + <p> + But in the shade cast by the vast system which had grown from the minds of + the great theologians and from the heart of the great poet there had come + to this truth neither bloom nor fruitage. + </p> + <p> + Quietly, however, the soil was receiving enrichment and the air warmth. + The processes of mathematics were constantly improved, the heavenly bodies + were steadily observed, and at length appeared, far from the centres of + thought, on the borders of Poland, a plain, simple-minded scholar, who + first fairly uttered to the modern world the truth—now so + commonplace, then so astounding—that the sun and planets do not + revolve about the earth, but that the earth and planets revolve about the + sun: this man was Nicholas Copernicus. + </p> + <p> + Copernicus had been a professor at Rome, and even as early as 1500 had + announced his doctrine there, but more in the way of a scientific + curiosity or paradox, as it had been previously held by Cardinal de Cusa, + than as the statement of a system representing a great fact in Nature. + About thirty years later one of his disciples, Widmanstadt, had explained + it to Clement VII; but it still remained a mere hypothesis, and soon, like + so many others, disappeared from the public view. But to Copernicus, + steadily studying the subject, it became more and more a reality, and as + this truth grew within him he seemed to feel that at Rome he was no longer + safe. To announce his discovery there as a theory or a paradox might amuse + the papal court, but to announce it as a truth—as THE truth—was + a far different matter. He therefore returned to his little town in + Poland. + </p> + <p> + To publish his thought as it had now developed was evidently dangerous + even there, and for more than thirty years it lay slumbering in the mind + of Copernicus and of the friends to whom he had privately intrusted it. + </p> + <p> + At last he prepared his great work on the Revolutions of the Heavenly + Bodies, and dedicated it to the Pope himself. He next sought a place of + publication. He dared not send it to Rome, for there were the rulers of + the older Church ready to seize it; he dared not send it to Wittenberg, + for there were the leaders of Protestantism no less hostile; he therefore + intrusted it to Osiander, at Nuremberg.(45) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (45) For the germs of heliocentric theory planted long before, see Sir +G. C. Lewis; and for a succinct statement of the claims of Pythagoras, +Philolaus, Aristarchus, and Martianus Capella, see Hoefer, Histoire de +l'Astronomie, 1873, p. 107 et seq.; also Heller, Geschichte der Physik, +Stuttgart, 1882, vol. i, pp. 12, 13; also pp. 99 et seq. For germs among +thinkers of India, see Whewell, vol. i, p. 277; also Whitney, Oriental +and Linguistic Studies, New York, 1874; Essay on the Lunar Zodiac, p. +345. For the views of Vincent of Beauvais, see his Speculum Naturale, +lib. xvi, cap. 21. For Cardinal d'Ailly's view, see his treatise De +Concordia Astronomicae Veritatis cum Theologia (in his Ymago Mundi +and separately). For general statement of De Cusa's work, see Draper, +Intellectual Development of Europe, p. 512. For skilful use of De Cusa's +view in order to mitigate censure upon the Church for its treatment +of Copernicus's discovery, see an article in the Catholic World for +January, 1869. For a very exact statement, in the spirit of judicial +fairness, see Whewell, History of the Inductive Sciences, p. 275, and +pp. 379, 380. In the latter, Whewell cites the exact words of De Cusa +in the De Docta Ignorantia, and sums up in these words: "This train +of thought might be a preparation for the reception of the Copernican +system; but it is very different from the doctrine that the sun is the +centre of the planetary system." Whewell says: "De Cusa propounded the +doctrine of the motion of the earth more as a paradox than as a reality. +We can not consider this as any distinct anticipation of a profound and +consistent view of the truth." On De Cusa, see also Heller, vol. i, p. +216. For Aristotle's views, and their elaboration by St. Thomas Aquinas, +see the De Coelo et Mundo, sec. xx, and elsewhere in the latter. It is +curious to see how even such a biographer as Archbishop Vaughan slurs +over the angelic Doctor's errors. See Vaughan's Life and Labours of St. +Thomas of Aquin, pp. 459, 460. +</pre> + <p> + As to Copernicus's danger at Rome, the Catholic World for January, 1869, + cites a speech of the Archbishop of Mechlin before the University of + Louvain, to the effect that Copernicus defended his theory at Rome, in + 1500, before two thousand scholars; also, that another professor taught + the system in 1528, and was made apostolic notary by Clement VIII. All + this, even if the doctrines taught were identical with Copernicus as + finally developed—which is simply not the case—avails nothing + against the overwhelming testimony that Copernicus felt himself in danger—testimony + which the after-history of the Copernican theory renders invincible. The + very title of Fromundus's book, already cited, published within a few + miles of the archbishop's own cathedral, and sanctioned expressly by the + theological faculty of that same University of Louvain in 1630, utterly + refutes the archbishop's idea that the Church was inclined to treat + Copernicus kindly. The title is as follows: Ant-Aristarchus sive + Orbis-Terrae Immobilis, in quo decretum S. Congregationis S. R. E. + Cardinal. an. M.DC.XVI adversus Pythagorico-Copernicanos editum + defenditur, Antverpiae, MDCXXI. L'Epinois, Galilee, Paris, 1867, lays + stress, p. 14, on the broaching of the doctrine by De Cusa in 1435, and by + Widmanstadt in 1533, and their kind treatment by Eugenius IV and Clement + VII; but this is absolutely worthless in denying the papal policy + afterward. Lange, Geschichte des Materialismus, vol. i, pp. 217, 218, + while admitting that De Cusa and Widmanstadt sustained this theory and + received honors from their respective popes, shows that, when the Church + gave it serious consideration, it was condemned. There is nothing in this + view unreasonable. It would be a parallel case to that of Leo X, at first + inclined toward Luther and others, in their "squabbles with the envious + friars," and afterward forced to oppose them. That Copernicus felt the + danger, is evident, among other things, by the expression in the preface: + "Statim me explodendum cum tali opinione clamitant." For dangers at + Wittenberg, see Lange, as above, vol. i, p. 217. + </p> + <p> + But Osiander's courage failed him: he dared not launch the new thought + boldly. He wrote a grovelling preface, endeavouring to excuse Copernicus + for his novel idea, and in this he inserted the apologetic lie that + Copernicus had propounded the doctrine of the earth's movement not as a + fact, but as a hypothesis. He declared that it was lawful for an + astronomer to indulge his imagination, and that this was what Copernicus + had done. + </p> + <p> + Thus was the greatest and most ennobling, perhaps, of scientific truths—a + truth not less ennobling to religion than to science—forced, in + coming before the world, to sneak and crawl.(46) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (46) Osiander, in a letter to Copernicus, dated April 20, 1541, had +endeavored to reconcile him to such a procedure, and ends by saying, +"Sic enim placidiores reddideris peripatheticos et theologos quos +contradicturos metuis." See Apologia Tychonis in Kepler's Opera Omnia, +Frisch's edition, vol. i, p. 246. Kepler holds Osiander entirely +responsible for this preface. Bertrand, in his Fondateurs de +l'astronomie moderne, gives its text, and thinks it possible that +Copernicus may have yielded "in pure condescension toward his disciple." +But this idea is utterly at variance with expressions in Copernicus's +own dedicatory letter to the Pope, which follows the preface. For a good +summary of the argument, see Figuier, Savants de la Renaissance, pp. +378, 379; see also citation from Gassendi's Life of Copernicus, in +Flammarion, Vie de Copernic, p. 124. Mr. John Fiske, accurate as +he usually is, in his Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy appears to have +followed Laplace, Delambre, and Petit into the error of supposing that +Copernicus, and not Osiander, is responsible for the preface. For the +latest proofs, see Menzer's translation of Copernicus's work, Thorn, +1879, notes on pp. 3 and 4 of the appendix. +</pre> + <p> + On the 24th of May, 1543, the newly printed book arrived at the house of + Copernicus. It was put into his hands; but he was on his deathbed. A few + hours later he was beyond the reach of the conscientious men who would + have blotted his reputation and perhaps have destroyed his life. + </p> + <p> + Yet not wholly beyond their reach. Even death could not be trusted to + shield him. There seems to have been fear of vengeance upon his corpse, + for on his tombstone was placed no record of his lifelong labours, no + mention of his great discovery; but there was graven upon it simply a + prayer: "I ask not the grace accorded to Paul; not that given to Peter; + give me only the favour which Thou didst show to the thief on the cross." + </p> + <p> + Not till thirty years after did a friend dare write on his tombstone a + memorial of his discovery.(47) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (47) See Flammarion, Vie de Copernic, p. 190. +</pre> + <p> + The preface of Osiander, pretending that the book of Copernicus suggested + a hypothesis instead of announcing a truth, served its purpose well. + During nearly seventy years the Church authorities evidently thought it + best not to stir the matter, and in some cases professors like Calganini + were allowed to present the new view purely as a hypothesis. There were, + indeed, mutterings from time to time on the theological side, but there + was no great demonstration against the system until 1616. Then, when the + Copernican doctrine was upheld by Galileo as a TRUTH, and proved to be a + truth by his telescope, the book was taken in hand by the Roman curia. The + statements of Copernicus were condemned, "until they should be corrected"; + and the corrections required were simply such as would substitute for his + conclusions the old Ptolemaic theory. + </p> + <p> + That this was their purpose was seen in that year when Galileo was + forbidden to teach or discuss the Copernican theory, and when were + forbidden "all books which affirm the motion of the earth." Henceforth to + read the work of Copernicus was to risk damnation, and the world accepted + the decree.(48) The strongest minds were thus held fast. If they could not + believe the old system, they must PRETEND that they believed it;—and + this, even after the great circumnavigation of the globe had done so much + to open the eyes of the world! Very striking is the case of the eminent + Jesuit missionary Joseph Acosta, whose great work on the Natural and Moral + History of the Indies, published in the last quarter of the sixteenth + century, exploded so many astronomical and geographical errors. Though at + times curiously credulous, he told the truth as far as he dared; but as to + the movement of the heavenly bodies he remained orthodox—declaring, + "I have seen the two poles, whereon the heavens turn as upon their + axletrees." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (48) The authorities deciding this matter in accordance with the wishes +of Pope V and Cardinal Bellarmine were the Congregation of the Index, +or cardinals having charge of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Recent +desperate attempts to fasten the responsibility on them as individuals +seem ridiculous in view of the simple fact that their work was +sanctioned by the highest Church authority, and required to be +universally accepted by the Church. Eleven different editions of the +Index in my own possession prove this. Nearly all of these declare on +their title-pages that they are issued by order of the pontiff of the +period, and each is preface by a special papal bull or letter. See +especially the Index of 1664, issued under order of Alexander VII, +and that of 1761, under Benedict XIV. Copernicus's statements were +prohibited in the Index "donec corrigantur." Kepler said that it ought +to be worded "donec explicetur." See Bertand, Fondateurs de l'Astronomie +moderne, p. 57. De Morgan, pp. 57-60, gives the corrections required by +the Index of 1620. Their main aim seems to be to reduce Copernicus +to the grovelling level of Osiander, making his discovery a mere +hypothesis; but occasionally they require a virtual giving up of the +whole Copernican doctrine—e.g., "correction" insisted upon for chap. +viii, p. 6. For a scholarly account of the relation between Prohibitory +and Expurgatory Indexes to each other, see Mendham, Literary Policy +of the Church of Rome; also Reusch, Index der verbotenen Bucher, Bonn, +1855, vol. ii, chaps i and ii. For a brief but very careful statement, +see Gebler, Galileo Galilei, English translation, London, 1879, chap. i; +see also Addis and Arnold's Catholic Dictionary, article Galileo, p.8. +</pre> + <p> + There was, indeed, in Europe one man who might have done much to check + this current of unreason which was to sweep away so many thoughtful men on + the one hand from scientific knowledge, and so many on the other from + Christianity. This was Peter Apian. He was one of the great mathematical + and astronomical scholars of the time. His brilliant abilities had made + him the astronomical teacher of the Emperor Charles V. His work on + geography had brought him a world-wide reputation; his work on astronomy + brought him a patent of nobility; his improvements in mathematical + processes and astronomical instruments brought him the praise of Kepler + and a place in the history of science: never had a true man better + opportunity to do a great deed. When Copernicus's work appeared, Apian was + at the height of his reputation and power: a quiet, earnest plea from him, + even if it had been only for ordinary fairness and a suspension of + judgment, must have carried much weight. His devoted pupil, Charles V, who + sat on the thrones of Germany and Spain, must at least have given a + hearing to such a plea. But, unfortunately, Apian was a professor in an + institution of learning under the strictest Church control—the + University of Ingolstadt. His foremost duty was to teach SAFE science—to + keep science within the line of scriptural truth as interpreted by + theological professors. His great opportunity was lost. Apian continued to + maunder over the Ptolemaic theory and astrology in his lecture-room. The + attack on the Copernican theory he neither supported nor opposed; he was + silent; and the cause of his silence should never be forgotten so long as + any Church asserts its title to control university instruction.(49) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (49) For Joseph Acosta's statement, see the translation of his History, +published by the Hakluyt Society, chap. ii. For Peter Apian, see Madler, +Geschichte der Astronomie, Braunschweig, 1873, vol. i, p. 141. For +evidences of the special favour of Charles V, see Delambre, Histoire +de l'Astronomie au Moyen Age, p. 390; also Bruhns, in the Allgemeine +deutsche Biographie. For an attempted apology for him, see Gunther, +Peter and Philipp Apian, Prag, 1822, p. 62. +</pre> + <p> + Doubtless many will exclaim against the Roman Catholic Church for this; + but the simple truth is that Protestantism was no less zealous against the + new scientific doctrine. All branches of the Protestant Church—Lutheran, + Calvinist, Anglican—vied with each other in denouncing the + Copernican doctrine as contrary to Scripture; and, at a later period, the + Puritans showed the same tendency. + </p> + <p> + Said Martin Luther: "People gave ear to an upstart astrologer who strove + to show that the earth revolves, not the heavens or the firmament, the sun + and the moon. Whoever wishes to appear clever must devise some new system, + which of all systems is of course the very best. This fool wishes to + reverse the entire science of astronomy; but sacred Scripture tells us + that Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, and not the earth." + Melanchthon, mild as he was, was not behind Luther in condemning + Copernicus. In his treatise on the Elements of Physics, published six + years after Copernicus's death, he says: "The eyes are witnesses that the + heavens revolve in the space of twenty-four hours. But certain men, either + from the love of novelty, or to make a display of ingenuity, have + concluded that the earth moves; and they maintain that neither the eighth + sphere nor the sun revolves.... Now, it is a want of honesty and decency + to assert such notions publicly, and the example is pernicious. It is the + part of a good mind to accept the truth as revealed by God and to + acquiesce in it." Melanchthon then cites the passages in the Psalms and + Ecclesiastes, which he declares assert positively and clearly that the + earth stands fast and that the sun moves around it, and adds eight other + proofs of his proposition that "the earth can be nowhere if not in the + centre of the universe." So earnest does this mildest of the Reformers + become, that he suggests severe measures to restrain such impious + teachings as those of Copernicus.(50) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (50) See the Tischreden in the Walsch edition of Luther's Works, 1743, +vol. xxii, p. 2260; also Melanchthon's Initia Doctrinae Physicae. +This treatise is cited under a mistaken title by the Catholic World, +September, 1870. The correct title is as given above; it will be found +in the Corpus Reformatorum, vol. xiii (ed. Bretschneider, Halle, 1846), +pp. 216, 217. See also Madler, vol. i, p. 176; also Lange, Geschichte +des Materialismus, vol. i, p. 217; also Prowe, Ueber die Abhangigkeit +des Copernicus, Thorn, 1865, p. 4; also note, pp. 5, 6, where text is +given in full. +</pre> + <p> + While Lutheranism was thus condemning the theory of the earth's movement, + other branches of the Protestant Church did not remain behind. Calvin took + the lead, in his Commentary on Genesis, by condemning all who asserted + that the earth is not at the centre of the universe. He clinched the + matter by the usual reference to the first verse of the ninety-third + Psalm, and asked, "Who will venture to place the authority of Copernicus + above that of the Holy Spirit?" Turretin, Calvin's famous successor, even + after Kepler and Newton had virtually completed the theory of Copernicus + and Galileo, put forth his compendium of theology, in which he proved, + from a multitude of scriptural texts, that the heavens, sun, and moon move + about the earth, which stands still in the centre. In England we see + similar theological efforts, even after they had become evidently futile. + Hutchinson's Moses's Principia, Dr. Samuel Pike's Sacred Philosophy, the + writings of Horne, Bishop Horsley, and President Forbes contain most + earnest attacks upon the ideas of Newton, such attacks being based upon + Scripture. Dr. John Owen, so famous in the annals of Puritanism, declared + the Copernican system a "delusive and arbitrary hypothesis, contrary to + Scripture"; and even John Wesley declared the new ideas to "tend toward + infidelity."(51) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (51) On the teachings on Protestantism as regards the Copernican theory, +see citations in Canon Farrar's History of Interpretation, preface, +xviii; also Rev. Dr. Shields, of Princeton, The Final Philosophy, pp. +60, 61. +</pre> + <p> + And Protestant peoples were not a whit behind Catholic in following out + such teachings. The people of Elbing made themselves merry over a farce in + which Copernicus was the main object of ridicule. The people of Nuremberg, + a Protestant stronghold, caused a medal to be struck with inscriptions + ridiculing the philosopher and his theory. + </p> + <p> + Why the people at large took this view is easily understood when we note + the attitude of the guardians of learning, both Catholic and Protestant, + in that age. It throws great light upon sundry claims by modern + theologians to take charge of public instruction and of the evolution of + science. So important was it thought to have "sound learning" guarded and + "safe science" taught, that in many of the universities, as late as the + end of the seventeenth century, professors were forced to take an oath not + to hold the "Pythagorean"—that is, the Copernican—idea as to + the movement of the heavenly bodies. As the contest went on, professors + were forbidden to make known to students the facts revealed by the + telescope. Special orders to this effect were issued by the ecclesiastical + authorities to the universities and colleges of Pisa, Innspruck, Louvain, + Douay, Salamanca, and others. During generations we find the authorities + of these Universities boasting that these godless doctrines were kept away + from their students. It is touching to hear such boasts made then, just as + it is touching now to hear sundry excellent university authorities boast + that they discourage the reading of Mill, Spencer, and Darwin. Nor were + such attempts to keep the truth from students confined to the Roman + Catholic institutions of learning. Strange as it may seem, nowhere were + the facts confirming the Copernican theory more carefully kept out of + sight than at Wittenberg—the university of Luther and Melanchthon. + About the middle of the sixteenth century there were at that centre of + Protestant instruction two astronomers of a very high order, Rheticus and + Reinhold; both of these, after thorough study, had convinced themselves + that the Copernican system was true, but neither of them was allowed to + tell this truth to his students. Neither in his lecture announcements nor + in his published works did Rheticus venture to make the new system known, + and he at last gave up his professorship and left Wittenberg, that he + might have freedom to seek and tell the truth. Reinhold was even more + wretchedly humiliated. Convinced of the truth of the new theory, he was + obliged to advocate the old; if he mentioned the Copernican ideas, he was + compelled to overlay them with the Ptolemaic. Even this was not thought + safe enough, and in 1571 the subject was intrusted to Peucer. He was + eminently "sound," and denounced the Copernican theory in his lectures as + "absurd, and unfit to be introduced into the schools." + </p> + <p> + To clinch anti-scientific ideas more firmly into German Protestant + teaching, Rector Hensel wrote a text-book for schools entitled The + Restored Mosaic System of the World, which showed the Copernican astronomy + to be unscriptural. + </p> + <p> + Doubtless this has a far-off sound; yet its echo comes very near modern + Protestantism in the expulsion of Dr. Woodrow by the Presbyterian + authorities in South Carolina; the expulsion of Prof. Winchell by the + Methodist Episcopal authorities in Tennessee; the expulsion of Prof. Toy + by Baptist authorities in Kentucky; the expulsion of the professors at + Beyrout under authority of American Protestant divines—all for + holding the doctrines of modern science, and in the last years of the + nineteenth century.(52) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (52) For treatment of Copernican ideas by the people, see The Catholic +World, as above; also Melanchthon, ubi supra; also Prowe, Copernicus, +Berlin, 1883, vol. i, p. 269, note; also pp. 279, 280; also Madler, i, +p.167. For Rector Hensel, see Rev. Dr. Shield's Final Philosophy, p. 60. +For details of recent Protestant efforts against evolution doctrines, +see the chapter on the Fall of Man and Anthropology in this work. +</pre> + <p> + But the new truth could not be concealed; it could neither be laughed down + nor frowned down. Many minds had received it, but within the hearing of + the papacy only one tongue appears to have dared to utter it clearly. This + new warrior was that strange mortal, Giordano Bruno. He was hunted from + land to land, until at last he turned on his pursuers with fearful + invectives. For this he was entrapped at Venice, imprisoned during six + years in the dungeons of the Inquisition at Rome, then burned alive, and + his ashes scattered to the winds. Still, the new truth lived on. + </p> + <p> + Ten years after the martyrdom of Bruno the truth of Copernicus's doctrine + was established by the telescope of Galileo.(53) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (53) For Bruno, see Bartholmess, Vie de Jordano Bruno, Paris, 1846, +vol. i, p.121 and pp. 212 et seq.; also Berti, Vita di Giordano Bruno, +Firenze, 1868, chap. xvi; also Whewell, vol. i, pp. 272, 273. That +Whewell is somewhat hasty in attributing Bruno's punishment entirely +to the Spaccio della Bestia Trionfante will be evident, in spite +of Montucla, to anyone who reads the account of the persecution in +Bartholmess or Berti; and even if Whewell be right, the Spaccio would +never have been written but for Bruno's indignation at ecclesiastical +oppression. See Tiraboschi, vol. vii, pp. 466 et seq. +</pre> + <p> + Herein was fulfilled one of the most touching of prophecies. Years before, + the opponents of Copernicus had said to him, "If your doctrines were true, + Venus would show phases like the moon." Copernicus answered: "You are + right; I know not what to say; but God is good, and will in time find an + answer to this objection." The God-given answer came when, in 1611, the + rude telescope of Galileo showed the phases of Venus.(54) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (54) For the relation of these discoveries to Copernicus's work, see +Delambre, Histoire de l'Astronomie moderne, discours preliminaire, +p. xiv; also Laplace, Systeme du Monde, vol. i, p. 326; and for more +careful statements, Kepler's Opera Omnia, edit. Frisch, tome ii, p. 464. +For Copernicus's prophecy, see Cantu, Histoire Univerelle, vol. xv, p. +473. (Cantu was an eminent Roman Catholic.) +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0016" id="link2H_4_0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III. THE WAR UPON GALILEO. + </h2> + <p> + On this new champion, Galileo, the whole war was at last concentrated. His + discoveries had clearly taken the Copernican theory out of the list of + hypotheses, and had placed it before the world as a truth. Against him, + then, the war was long and bitter. The supporters of what was called + "sound learning" declared his discoveries deceptions and his announcements + blasphemy. Semi-scientific professors, endeavouring to curry favour with + the Church, attacked him with sham science; earnest preachers attacked him + with perverted Scripture; theologians, inquisitors, congregations of + cardinals, and at last two popes dealt with him, and, as was supposed, + silenced his impious doctrine forever.(55) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (55) A very curious example of this sham science employed by theologians +is seen in the argument, frequently used at that time, that, if the +earth really moved, a stone falling from a height would fall back of a +point immediately below its point of starting. This is used by Fromundus +with great effect. It appears never to have occurred to him to test the +matter by dropping a stone from the topmast of a ship. Bezenburg has +mathematically demonstrated just such an aberration in falling bodies, +as is mathematically required by the diurnal motion of the earth. See +Jevons, Principles of Science, pp. 388, 389, second edition, 1877. +</pre> + <p> + I shall present this warfare at some length because, so far as I can find, + no careful summary of it has been given in our language, since the whole + history was placed in a new light by the revelations of the trial + documents in the Vatican Library, honestly published for the first time by + L'Epinois in 1867, and since that by Gebler, Berti, Favaro, and others. + </p> + <p> + The first important attack on Galileo began in 1610, when he announced + that his telescope had revealed the moons of the planet Jupiter. The enemy + saw that this took the Copernican theory out of the realm of hypothesis, + and they gave battle immediately. They denounced both his method and its + results as absurd and impious. As to his method, professors bred in the + "safe science" favoured by the Church argued that the divinely appointed + way of arriving at the truth in astronomy was by theological reasoning on + texts of Scripture; and, as to his results, they insisted, first, that + Aristotle knew nothing of these new revelations; and, next, that the Bible + showed by all applicable types that there could be only seven planets; + that this was proved by the seven golden candlesticks of the Apocalypse, + by the seven-branched candlestick of the tabernacle, and by the seven + churches of Asia; that from Galileo's doctrine consequences must logically + result destructive to Christian truth. Bishops and priests therefore + warned their flocks, and multitudes of the faithful besought the + Inquisition to deal speedily and sharply with the heretic.(56) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (56) See Delambre on the discovery of the satellites of Jupiter as +the turning-point with the heliocentric doctrine. As to its effects +on Bacon, see Jevons, p. 638, as above. For argument drawn from the +candlestick and the seven churches, see Delambre, p. 20. +</pre> + <p> + In vain did Galileo try to prove the existence of satellites by showing + them to the doubters through his telescope: they either declared it + impious to look, or, if they did look, denounced the satellites as + illusions from the devil. Good Father Clavius declared that "to see + satellites of Jupiter, men had to make an instrument which would create + them." In vain did Galileo try to save the great truths he had discovered + by his letters to the Benedictine Castelli and the Grand-Duchess + Christine, in which he argued that literal biblical interpretation should + not be applied to science; it was answered that such an argument only made + his heresy more detestable; that he was "worse than Luther or Calvin." + </p> + <p> + The war on the Copernican theory, which up to that time had been carried + on quietly, now flamed forth. It was declared that the doctrine was proved + false by the standing still of the sun for Joshua, by the declarations + that "the foundations of the earth are fixed so firm that they can not be + moved," and that the sun "runneth about from one end of the heavens to the + other."(57) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (57) For principle points as given, see Libri, Histoire des Sciences +mathematiques en Italie, vol. iv, p. 211; De Morgan, Paradoxes, p. 26, +for account of Father Clavius. It is interesting to know that Clavius, +in his last years, acknowledged that "the whole system of the heavens is +broken down, and must be mended," Cantu, Histoire Universelle, vol. +xv, p. 478. See Th. Martin, Galilee, pp. 34, 208, and 266; also Heller, +Geschichte der Physik, Stuttgart, 1882, vol. i, p. 366. For the original +documents, see L'Epinois, pp.34 and 36; or better, Gebler's careful +edition of the trial (Die Acten des Galileischen Processes, Stuttgart, +1877), pp. 47 et seq. Martin's translation seems somewhat too free. See +also Gebler, Galileo Galilei, English translation, London, 1879, pp. +76-78; also Reusch, Der Process Galilei's und die Jesuiten, Bonn, 1879, +chaps. ix, x, xi. +</pre> + <p> + But the little telescope of Galileo still swept the heavens, and another + revelation was announced—the mountains and valleys in the moon. This + brought on another attack. It was declared that this, and the statement + that the moon shines by light reflected from the sun, directly contradict + the statement in Genesis that the moon is "a great light." To make the + matter worse, a painter, placing the moon in a religious picture in its + usual position beneath the feet of the Blessed Virgin, outlined on its + surface mountains and valleys; this was denounced as a sacrilege logically + resulting from the astronomer's heresy. + </p> + <p> + Still another struggle was aroused when the hated telescope revealed spots + upon the sun, and their motion indicating the sun's rotation. Monsignor + Elci, head of the University of Pisa, forbade the astronomer Castelli to + mention these spots to his students. Father Busaeus, at the University of + Innspruck, forbade the astronomer Scheiner, who had also discovered the + spots and proposed a SAFE explanation of them, to allow the new discovery + to be known there. At the College of Douay and the University of Louvain + this discovery was expressly placed under the ban, and this became the + general rule among the Catholic universities and colleges of Europe. The + Spanish universities were especially intolerant of this and similar ideas, + and up to a recent period their presentation was strictly forbidden in the + most important university of all—that of Salamanca.(58) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (58) See Ticknor, History of Spanish Literature, vol. iii. +</pre> + <p> + Such are the consequences of placing the instruction of men's minds in the + hands of those mainly absorbed in saving men's souls. Nothing could be + more in accordance with the idea recently put forth by sundry + ecclesiastics, Catholic and Protestant, that the Church alone is empowered + to promulgate scientific truth or direct university instruction. But + science gained a victory here also. Observations of the solar spots were + reported not only from Galileo in Italy, but from Fabricius in Holland. + Father Scheiner then endeavoured to make the usual compromise between + theology and science. He promulgated a pseudo-scientific theory, which + only provoked derision. + </p> + <p> + The war became more and more bitter. The Dominican Father Caccini preached + a sermon from the text, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into + heaven?" and this wretched pun upon the great astronomer's name ushered in + sharper weapons; for, before Caccini ended, he insisted that "geometry is + of the devil," and that "mathematicians should be banished as the authors + of all heresies." The Church authorities gave Caccini promotion. + </p> + <p> + Father Lorini proved that Galileo's doctrine was not only heretical but + "atheistic," and besought the Inquisition to intervene. The Bishop of + Fiesole screamed in rage against the Copernican system, publicly insulted + Galileo, and denounced him to the Grand-Duke. The Archbishop of Pisa + secretly sought to entrap Galileo and deliver him to the Inquisition at + Rome. The Archbishop of Florence solemnly condemned the new doctrines as + unscriptural; and Paul V, while petting Galileo, and inviting him as the + greatest astronomer of the world to visit Rome, was secretly moving the + Archbishop of Pisa to pick up evidence against the astronomer. + </p> + <p> + But by far the most terrible champion who now appeared was Cardinal + Bellarmin, one of the greatest theologians the world has known. He was + earnest, sincere, and learned, but insisted on making science conform to + Scripture. The weapons which men of Bellarmin's stamp used were purely + theological. They held up before the world the dreadful consequences which + must result to Christian theology were the heavenly bodies proved to + revolve about the sun and not about the earth. Their most tremendous + dogmatic engine was the statement that "his pretended discovery vitiates + the whole Christian plan of salvation." Father Lecazre declared "it casts + suspicion on the doctrine of the incarnation." Others declared, "It upsets + the whole basis of theology. If the earth is a planet, and only one among + several planets, it can not be that any such great things have been done + specially for it as the Christian doctrine teaches. If there are other + planets, since God makes nothing in vain, they must be inhabited; but how + can their inhabitants be descended from Adam? How can they trace back + their origin to Noah's ark? How can they have been redeemed by the + Saviour?" Nor was this argument confined to the theologians of the Roman + Church; Melanchthon, Protestant as he was, had already used it in his + attacks on Copernicus and his school. + </p> + <p> + In addition to this prodigious theological engine of war there was kept up + a fire of smaller artillery in the shape of texts and scriptural extracts. + </p> + <p> + But the war grew still more bitter, and some weapons used in it are worth + examining. They are very easily examined, for they are to be found on all + the battlefields of science; but on that field they were used with more + effect than on almost any other. These weapons are the epithets "infidel" + and "atheist." They have been used against almost every man who has ever + done anything new for his fellow-men. The list of those who have been + denounced as "infidel" and "atheist" includes almost all great men of + science, general scholars, inventors, and philanthropists. + </p> + <p> + The purest Christian life, the noblest Christian character, have not + availed to shield combatants. Christians like Isaac Newton, Pascal, Locke, + Milton, and even Fenelon and Howard, have had this weapon hurled against + them. Of all proofs of the existence of a God, those of Descartes have + been wrought most thoroughly into the minds of modern men; yet the + Protestant theologians of Holland sought to bring him to torture and to + death by the charge of atheism, and the Roman Catholic theologians of + France thwarted him during his life and prevented any due honours to him + after his death.(59) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (59) For various objectors and objections to Galileo by his +contemporaries, see Libri, Histoire des Sciences mathematiques en +Italie, vol. iv, p. 233, 234; also Martin, Vie de Galilee. For Father +Lecazre's argument, see Flammarion, Mondes imaginaires et mondes reels, +6th ed., pp. 315, 316. For Melanchthon's argument, see his Initia in +Opera, vol. iii, Halle, 1846. +</pre> + <p> + These epithets can hardly be classed with civilized weapons. They are + burning arrows; they set fire to masses of popular prejudice, always + obscuring the real question, sometimes destroying the attacking party. + They are poisoned weapons. They pierce the hearts of loving women; they + alienate dear children; they injure a man after life is ended, for they + leave poisoned wounds in the hearts of those who loved him best—fears + for his eternal salvation, dread of the Divine wrath upon him. Of course, + in these days these weapons, though often effective in vexing good men and + in scaring good women, are somewhat blunted; indeed, they not infrequently + injure the assailants more than the assailed. So it was not in the days of + Galileo; they were then in all their sharpness and venom.(60) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (60) For curious exemplification of the way in which these weapons +have been hurled, see lists of persons charged with "infidelity" and +"atheism," in the Dictionnaire des Athees., Paris, (1800); also Lecky, +History of Rationalism, vol. ii, p. 50. For the case of Descartes, see +Saisset, Descartes et ses Precurseurs, pp. 103, 110. For the facility +with which the term "atheist" has been applied from the early Aryans +down to believers in evolution, see Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. i, p. +420. +</pre> + <p> + Yet a baser warfare was waged by the Archbishop of Pisa. This man, whose + cathedral derives its most enduring fame from Galileo's deduction of a + great natural law from the swinging lamp before its altar, was not an + archbishop after the noble mould of Borromeo and Fenelon and Cheverus. + Sadly enough for the Church and humanity, he was simply a zealot and + intriguer: he perfected the plan for entrapping the great astronomer. + </p> + <p> + Galileo, after his discoveries had been denounced, had written to his + friend Castelli and to the Grand-Duchess Christine two letters to show + that his discoveries might be reconciled with Scripture. On a hint from + the Inquisition at Rome, the archbishop sought to get hold of these + letters and exhibit them as proofs that Galileo had uttered heretical + views of theology and of Scripture, and thus to bring him into the clutch + of the Inquisition. 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. It is most suggestive + to see in this crisis of the Church, at the tomb of the prince of the + apostles, on the eve of the greatest errors in Church policy the world has + known, in all the intrigues and deliberations of these consecrated leaders + of the Church, no more evidence of the guidance or presence of the Holy + Spirit than in a caucus of New York politicians at Tammany Hall. + </p> + <p> + But the opposing powers were too strong. In 1615 Galileo was summoned + before the Inquisition at Rome, and the mine which had been so long + preparing was sprung. Sundry theologians of the Inquisition having been + ordered to examine two propositions which had been extracted from + Galileo's letters on the solar spots, solemnly considered these points + during about a month and rendered their unanimous decision as follows: + "THE FIRST PROPOSITION, THAT THE SUN IS THE CENTRE AND DOES NOT REVOLVE + ABOUT THE EARTH, IS FOOLISH, ABSURD, FALSE IN THEOLOGY, AND HERETICAL, + BECAUSE EXPRESSLY CONTRARY TO HOLY SCRIPTURE"; AND "THE SECOND + PROPOSITION, THAT THE EARTH IS NOT THE CENTRE BUT REVOLVES ABOUT THE SUN, + IS ABSURD, FALSE IN PHILOSOPHY, AND, FROM A THEOLOGICAL POINT OF VIEW AT + LEAST, OPPOSED TO THE TRUE FAITH." + </p> + <p> + The Pope himself, Paul V, now intervened again: he ordered that Galileo be + brought before the Inquisition. Then the greatest man of science in that + age was brought face to face with the greatest theologian—Galileo + was confronted by Bellarmin. Bellarmin shows Galileo the error of his + opinion and orders him to renounce it. De Lauda, fortified by a letter + from the Pope, gives orders that the astronomer be placed in the dungeons + of the Inquisition should he refuse to yield. Bellarmin now commands + Galileo, "in the name of His Holiness the Pope and the whole Congregation + of the Holy Office, to relinquish altogether the opinion that the sun is + the centre of the world and immovable, and that the earth moves, nor + henceforth to hold, teach, or defend it in any way whatsoever, verbally or + in writing." This injunction Galileo acquiesces in and promises to + obey.(61) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (61) I am aware that the theory proposed by Wohwill and developed by +Gebler denied that this promise was ever made by Galileo, and holds that +the passage was a forgery devised later by the Church rulers to justify +the proceedings of 1632 and 1644. This would make the conduct of the +Church worse, but authorities as eminent consider the charge not proved. +A careful examination of the documents seems to disprove it. +</pre> + <p> + This was on the 26th of February, 1616. About a fortnight later the + Congregation of the Index, moved thereto, as the letters and documents now + brought to light show, by Pope Paul V, solemnly rendered a decree that + "THE DOCTRINE OF THE DOUBLE MOTION OF THE EARTH ABOUT ITS AXIS AND ABOUT + THE SUN IS FALSE, AND ENTIRELY CONTRARY TO HOLY SCRIPTURE"; and that this + opinion must neither be taught nor advocated. The same decree condemned + all writings of Copernicus and "ALL WRITINGS WHICH AFFIRM THE MOTION OF + THE EARTH." The great work of Copernicus was interdicted until corrected + in accordance with the views of the Inquisition; and the works of Galileo + and Kepler, though not mentioned by name at that time, were included among + those implicitly condemned as "affirming the motion of the earth." + </p> + <p> + The condemnations were inscribed upon the Index; and, finally, the papacy + committed itself as an infallible judge and teacher to the world by + prefixing to the Index the usual papal bull giving its monitions the most + solemn papal sanction. To teach or even read the works denounced or + passages condemned was to risk persecution in this world and damnation in + the next. Science had apparently lost the decisive battle. + </p> + <p> + For a time after this judgment Galileo remained in Rome, apparently hoping + to find some way out of this difficulty; but he soon discovered the + hollowness of the protestations made to him by ecclesiastics, and, being + recalled to Florence, remained in his hermitage near the city in silence, + working steadily, indeed, but not publishing anything save by private + letters to friends in various parts of Europe. + </p> + <p> + But at last a better vista seemed to open for him. Cardinal Barberini, who + had seemed liberal and friendly, became pope under the name of Urban VIII. + Galileo at this conceived new hopes, and allowed his continued allegiance + to the Copernican system to be known. New troubles ensued. Galileo was + induced to visit Rome again, and Pope Urban tried to cajole him into + silence, personally taking the trouble to show him his errors by argument. + Other opponents were less considerate, for works appeared attacking his + ideas—works all the more unmanly, since their authors knew that + Galileo was restrained by force from defending himself. Then, too, as if + to accumulate proofs of the unfitness of the Church to take charge of + advanced instruction, his salary as a professor at the University of Pisa + was taken from him, and sapping and mining began. Just as the Archbishop + of Pisa some years before had tried to betray him with honeyed words to + the Inquisition, so now Father Grassi tried it, and, after various + attempts to draw him out by flattery, suddenly denounced his scientific + ideas as "leading to a denial of the Real Presence in the Eucharist." + </p> + <p> + For the final assault upon him a park of heavy artillery was at last + wheeled into place. It may be seen on all the scientific battlefields. It + consists of general denunciation; and in 1631 Father Melchior Inchofer, of + the Jesuits, brought his artillery to bear upon Galileo with this + declaration: "The opinion of the earth's motion is of all heresies the + most abominable, the most pernicious, the most scandalous; the + immovability of the earth is thrice sacred; argument against the + immortality of the soul, the existence of God, and the incarnation, should + be tolerated sooner than an argument to prove that the earth moves." From + the other end of Europe came a powerful echo. + </p> + <p> + From the shadow of the Cathedral of Antwerp, the noted theologian + Fromundus gave forth his famous treatise, the Ant-Aristarclius. Its very + title-page was a contemptuous insult to the memory of Copernicus, since it + paraded the assumption that the new truth was only an exploded theory of a + pagan astronomer. Fromundus declares that "sacred Scripture fights against + the Copernicans." To prove that the sun revolves about the earth, he cites + the passage in the Psalms which speaks of the sun "which cometh forth as a + bridegroom out of his chamber." To prove that the earth stands still, he + quotes a passage from Ecclesiastes, "The earth standeth fast forever." To + show the utter futility of the Copernican theory, he declares that, if it + were true, "the wind would constantly blow from the east"; and that + "buildings and the earth itself would fly off with such a rapid motion + that men would have to be provided with claws like cats to enable them to + hold fast to the earth's surface." Greatest weapon of all, he works up, by + the use of Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas, a demonstration from theology + and science combined, that the earth MUST stand in the centre, and that + the sun MUST revolve about it.(62) Nor was it merely fanatics who opposed + the truth revealed by Copernicus; such strong men as Jean Bodin, in + France, and Sir Thomas Browne, in England, declared against it as + evidently contrary to Holy Scripture. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (62) For Father Inchofer's attack, see his Tractatus Syllepticus, cited +in Galileo's letter to Deodati, July 28, 1634. For Fromundus's more +famous attack, see his Ant-Aristarchus, already cited, passim, but +especially the heading of chap. vi, and the argument in chapters x and +xi. A copy of this work may be found in the Astor Library at New York, +and another in the White Library at Cornell University. For interesting +references to one of Fromundus's arguments, showing, by a mixture of +mathematics and theology, that the earth is the centre of the universe, +see Quetelet, Histoire des Sciences mathematiques et physiques, +Bruxelles, 1864, p. 170; also Madler, Geschichte der Astronomie, vol. +i, p. 274. For Bodin's opposition to the Copernican theory, see Hallam, +Literature of Europe; also Lecky. For Sir Thomas Brown, see his Vulgar +and Common Errors, book iv, chap. v; and as to the real reason for his +disbelief in the Copernican view, see Dr. Johnson's preface to his Life +of Browne, vol. i, p. xix, of his collected works. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0017" id="link2H_4_0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IV. VICTORY OF THE CHURCH OVER GALILEO. + </h2> + <p> + While news of triumphant attacks upon him and upon the truth he had + established were coming in from all parts of Europe, Galileo prepared a + careful treatise in the form of a dialogue, exhibiting the arguments for + and against the Copernican and Ptolemaic systems, and offered to submit to + any conditions that the Church tribunals might impose, if they would allow + it to be printed. At last, after discussions which extended through eight + years, they consented, imposing a humiliating condition—a preface + written in accordance with the ideas of Father Ricciardi, Master of the + Sacred Palace, and signed by Galileo, in which the Copernican theory was + virtually exhibited as a play of the imagination, and not at all as + opposed to the Ptolemaic doctrine reasserted in 1616 by the Inquisition + under the direction of Pope Paul V. + </p> + <p> + This new work of Galileo—the Dialogo—appeared in 1632, and met + with prodigious success. It put new weapons into the hands of the + supporters of the Copernican theory. The pious preface was laughed at from + one end of Europe to the other. This roused the enemy; the Jesuits, + Dominicans, and the great majority of the clergy returned to the attack + more violent than ever, and in the midst of them stood Pope Urban VIII, + most bitter of all. His whole power was now thrown against Galileo. He was + touched in two points: first, in his personal vanity, for Galileo had put + the Pope's arguments into the mouth of one of the persons in the dialogue + and their refutation into the mouth of another; but, above all, he was + touched in his religious feelings. Again and again His Holiness insisted + to all comers on the absolute and specific declarations of Holy Scripture, + which prove that the sun and heavenly bodies revolve about the earth, and + declared that to gainsay them is simply to dispute revelation. Certainly, + if one ecclesiastic more than another ever seemed NOT under the care of + the Spirit of Truth, it was Urban VIII in all this matter. + </p> + <p> + Herein was one of the greatest pieces of ill fortune that has ever + befallen the older Church. Had Pope Urban been broad-minded and tolerant + like Benedict XIV, or had he been taught moderation by adversity like Pius + VII, or had he possessed the large scholarly qualities of Leo XIII, now + reigning, the vast scandal of the Galileo case would never have burdened + the Church: instead of devising endless quibbles and special pleadings to + escape responsibility for this colossal blunder, its defenders could have + claimed forever for the Church the glory of fearlessly initiating a great + epoch in human thought. + </p> + <p> + But it was not so to be. Urban was not merely Pope; he was also a prince + of the house of Barberini, and therefore doubly angry that his arguments + had been publicly controverted. + </p> + <p> + The opening strategy of Galileo's enemies was to forbid the sale of his + work; but this was soon seen to be unavailing, for the first edition had + already been spread throughout Europe. Urban now became more angry than + ever, and both Galileo and his works were placed in the hands of the + Inquisition. In vain did the good Benedictine Castelli urge that Galileo + was entirely respectful to the Church; in vain did he insist that "nothing + that can be done can now hinder the earth from revolving." He was + dismissed in disgrace, and Galileo was forced to appear in the presence of + the dread tribunal without defender or adviser. There, as was so long + concealed, but as is now fully revealed, he was menaced with torture again + and again by express order of Pope Urban, and, as is also thoroughly + established from the trial documents themselves, forced to abjure under + threats, and subjected to imprisonment by command of the Pope; the + Inquisition deferring in this whole matter to the papal authority. All the + long series of attempts made in the supposed interest of the Church to + mystify these transactions have at last failed. The world knows now that + Galileo was subjected certainly to indignity, to imprisonment, and to + threats equivalent to torture, and was at last forced to pronounce + publicly and on his knees his recantation, as follows: + </p> + <p> + "I, Galileo, being in my seventieth year, being a prisoner and on my + knees, and before your Eminences, having before my eyes the Holy Gospel, + which I touch with my hands, abjure, curse, and detest the error and the + heresy of the movement of the earth."(63) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (63) For various utterances of Pope Urban against the Copernican theory +at this period, see extracts from the original documents given by +Gebler. For punishment of those who had shown some favor to Galileo, +see various citations, and especially those from the Vatican manuscript, +Gebler, p. 216. As to the text of the abjuration, see L'Epinois; also +Polacco, Anticopernicus, etc., Venice, 1644; and for a discussion +regarding its publication, see Favaro, Miscellanea Galileana, p. 804. It +is not probable that torture in the ordinary sense was administered to +Galileo, though it was threatened. See Th. Martin, Vie de Galilee, for a +fair summing up of the case. +</pre> + <p> + He was vanquished indeed, for he had been forced, in the face of all + coming ages, to perjure himself. To complete his dishonour, he was obliged + to swear that he would denounce to the Inquisition any other man of + science whom he should discover to be supporting the "heresy of the motion + of the earth." + </p> + <p> + Many have wondered at this abjuration, and on account of it have denied to + Galileo the title of martyr. But let such gainsayers consider the + circumstances. Here was an old man—one who had reached the allotted + threescore years and ten—broken with disappointments, worn out with + labours and cares, dragged from Florence to Rome, with the threat from the + Pope himself that if he delayed he should be "brought in chains"; sick in + body and mind, given over to his oppressors by the Grand-Duke who ought to + have protected him, and on his arrival in Rome threatened with torture. + What the Inquisition was he knew well. He could remember as but of + yesterday the burning of Giordano Bruno in that same city for scientific + and philosophic heresy; he could remember, too, that only eight years + before this very time De Dominis, Archbishop of Spalatro, having been + seized by the Inquisition for scientific and other heresies, had died in a + dungeon, and that his body and his writings had been publicly burned. + </p> + <p> + To the end of his life—nay, after his life was ended—the + persecution of Galileo was continued. He was kept in exile from his + family, from his friends, from his noble employments, and was held rigidly + to his promise not to speak of his theory. When, in the midst of intense + bodily sufferings from disease, and mental sufferings from calamities in + his family, he besought some little liberty, he was met with threats of + committal to a dungeon. When, at last, a special commission had reported + to the ecclesiastical authorities that he had become blind and wasted with + disease and sorrow, he was allowed a little more liberty, but that little + was hampered by close surveillance. He was forced to bear contemptible + attacks on himself and on his works in silence; to see the men who had + befriended him severely punished; Father Castelli banished; Ricciardi, the + Master of the Sacred Palace, and Ciampoli, the papal secretary, thrown out + of their positions by Pope Urban, and the Inquisitor at Florence + reprimanded for having given permission to print Galileo's work. He lived + to see the truths he had established carefully weeded out from all the + Church colleges and universities in Europe; and, when in a scientific work + he happened to be spoken of as "renowned," the Inquisition ordered the + substitution of the word "notorious."(64) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (64) For the substitution of the word "notorious" for "renowned" by +order of the Inquisition, see Martin, p.227. +</pre> + <p> + And now measures were taken to complete the destruction of the Copernican + theory, with Galileo's proofs of it. On the 16th of June, 1633, the Holy + Congregation, with the permission of the reigning Pope, ordered the + sentence upon Galileo, and his recantation, to be sent to all the papal + nuncios throughout Europe, as well as to all archbishops, bishops, and + inquisitors in Italy and this document gave orders that the sentence and + abjuration be made known "to your vicars, that you and all professors of + philosophy and mathematics may have knowledge of it, that they may know + why we proceeded against the said Galileo, and recognise the gravity of + his error, in order that they may avoid it, and thus not incur the + penalties which they would have to suffer in case they fell into the + same."(65) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (65) For a copy of this document, see Gebler, p. 269. As to the +spread of this and similar documents notifying Europe of Galileo's +condemnation, see Favaro, pp. 804, 805. +</pre> + <p> + As a consequence, the processors of mathematics and astronomy in various + universities of Europe were assembled and these documents were read to + them. To the theological authorities this gave great satisfaction. The + Rector of the University of Douay, referring to the opinion of Galileo, + wrote to the papal nuncio at Brussels: "The professors of our university + are so opposed to this fanatical opinion that they have always held that + it must be banished from the schools. In our English college at Douay this + paradox has never been approved and never will be." + </p> + <p> + Still another step was taken: the Inquisitors were ordered, especially in + Italy, not to permit the publication of a new edition of any of Galileo's + works, or of any similar writings. On the other hand, theologians were + urged, now that Copernicus and Galileo and Kepler were silenced, to reply + to them with tongue and pen. Europe was flooded with these theological + refutations of the Copernican system. + </p> + <p> + To make all complete, there was prefixed to the Index of the Church, + forbidding "all writings which affirm the motion of the earth," a bull + signed by the reigning Pope, which, by virtue of his infallibility as a + divinely guided teacher in matters of faith and morals, clinched this + condemnation into the consciences of the whole Christian world. + </p> + <p> + From the mass of books which appeared under the auspices of the Church + immediately after the condemnation of Galileo, for the purpose of rooting + out every vestige of the hated Copernican theory from the mind of the + world, two may be taken as typical. The first of these was a work by + Scipio Chiaramonti, dedicated to Cardinal Barberini. Among his arguments + against the double motion of the earth may be cited the following: + </p> + <p> + "Animals, which move, have limbs and muscles; the earth has no limbs or + muscles, therefore it does not move. It is angels who make Saturn, + Jupiter, the sun, etc., turn round. If the earth revolves, it must also + have an angel in the centre to set it in motion; but only devils live + there; it would therefore be a devil who would impart motion to the + earth.... + </p> + <p> + "The planets, the sun, the fixed stars, all belong to one species—namely, + that of stars. It seems, therefore, to be a grievous wrong to place the + earth, which is a sink of impurity, among these heavenly bodies, which are + pure and divine things." + </p> + <p> + The next, which I select from the mass of similar works, is the + Anticopernicus Catholicus of Polacco. It was intended to deal a finishing + stroke at Galileo's heresy. In this it is declared: + </p> + <p> + "The Scripture always represents the earth as at rest, and the sun and + moon as in motion; or, if these latter bodies are ever represented as at + rest, Scripture represents this as the result of a great miracle.... + </p> + <p> + "These writings must be prohibited, because they teach certain principles + about the position and motion of the terrestrial globe repugnant to Holy + Scripture and to the Catholic interpretation of it, not as hypotheses but + as established facts...." + </p> + <p> + Speaking of Galileo's book, Polacco says that it "smacked of + Copernicanism," and that, "when this was shown to the Inquisition, Galileo + was thrown into prison and was compelled to utterly abjure the baseness of + this erroneous dogma." + </p> + <p> + As to the authority of the cardinals in their decree, Polacco asserts + that, since they are the "Pope's Council" and his "brothers," their work + is one, except that the Pope is favoured with special divine + enlightenment. + </p> + <p> + Having shown that the authority of the Scriptures, of popes, and of + cardinals is against the new astronomy, he gives a refutation based on + physics. He asks: "If we concede the motion of the earth, why is it that + an arrow shot into the air falls back to the same spot, while the earth + and all things on it have in the meantime moved very rapidly toward the + east? Who does not see that great confusion would result from this + motion?" + </p> + <p> + Next he argues from metaphysics, as follows: "The Copernican theory of the + earth's motion is against the nature of the earth itself, because the + earth is not only cold but contains in itself the principle of cold; but + cold is opposed to motion, and even destroys it—as is evident in + animals, which become motionless when they become cold." + </p> + <p> + Finally, he clinches all with a piece of theological reasoning, as + follows: "Since it can certainly be gathered from Scripture that the + heavens move above the earth, and since a circular motion requires + something immovable around which to move,... the earth is at the centre of + the universe."(66) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (66) For Chiaramonti's book and selections given, see Gebler as above, +p. 271. For Polacco, see his work as cited, especially Assertiones i, +ii, vii, xi, xiii, lxxiii, clcccvii, and others. The work is in the +White Library at Cornell University. The date of it is 1644. +</pre> + <p> + But any sketch of the warfare between theology and science in this field + would be incomplete without some reference to the treatment of Galileo + after his death. He had begged to be buried in his family tomb in Santa + Croce; this request was denied. His friends wished to erect a monument + over him; this, too, was refused. Pope Urban said to the ambassador + Niccolini that "it would be an evil example for the world if such honours + were rendered to a man who had been brought before the Roman Inquisition + for an opinion so false and erroneous; who had communicated it to many + others, and who had given so great a scandal to Christendom." In + accordance, therefore, with the wish of the Pope and the orders of the + Inquisition, Galileo was buried ignobly, apart from his family, without + fitting ceremony, without monument, without epitaph. Not until forty years + after did Pierrozzi dare write an inscription to be placed above his + bones; not until a hundred years after did Nelli dare transfer his remains + to a suitable position in Santa Croce, and erect a monument above them. + Even then the old conscientious hostility burst forth: the Inquisition was + besought to prevent such honours to "a man condemned for notorious + errors"; and that tribunal refused to allow any epitaph to be placed above + him which had not been submitted to its censorship. Nor has that old + conscientious consistency in hatred yet fully relented: hardly a + generation since has not seen some ecclesiastic, like Marini or De Bonald + or Rallaye or De Gabriac, suppressing evidence, or torturing expressions, + or inventing theories to blacken the memory of Galileo and save the + reputation of the Church. Nay, more: there are school histories, widely + used, which, in the supposed interest of the Church, misrepresent in the + grossest manner all these transactions in which Galileo was concerned. + Sancta simplicitas! The Church has no worse enemies than those who devise + and teach these perversions. They are simply rooting out, in the long run, + from the minds of the more thoughtful scholars, respect for the great + organization which such writings are supposed to serve.(67) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (67) For the persecutions of Galileo's memory after his death, see +Gebler and Wohwill, but especially Th. Martin, p. 243 and chaps. ix +and x. For documentary proofs, see L'Epinois. For a collection of the +slanderous theories invented against Galileo, see Martin, final chapters +and appendix. Both these authors are devoted to the Church, but unlike +Monsignor Marini, are too upright to resort to the pious fraud of +suppressing documents or interpolating pretended facts. +</pre> + <p> + The Protestant Church was hardly less energetic against this new astronomy + than the mother Church. The sacred science of the first Lutheran Reformers + was transmitted as a precious legacy, and in the next century was made + much of by Calovius. His great learning and determined orthodoxy gave him + the Lutheran leadership. Utterly refusing to look at ascertained facts, he + cited the turning back of the shadow upon King Hezekiah's dial and the + standing still of the sun for Joshua, denied the movement of the earth, + and denounced the whole new view as clearly opposed to Scripture. To this + day his arguments are repeated by sundry orthodox leaders of American + Lutheranism. + </p> + <p> + As to the other branches of the Reformed Church, we have already seen how + Calvinists, Anglicans, and, indeed, Protestant sectarians generally, + opposed the new truth.(68) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (68) For Clovius, see Zoeckler, Geschichte, vol. i, pp. 684 and 763. For +Calvin and Turretin, see Shields, The Final Philosophy, pp. 60, 61. +</pre> + <p> + In England, among the strict churchmen, the great Dr. South denounced the + Royal Society as "irreligious," and among the Puritans the eminent John + Owen declared that Newton's discoveries were "built on fallible phenomena + and advanced by many arbitrary presumptions against evident testimonies of + Scripture." Even Milton seems to have hesitated between the two systems. + At the beginning of the eighth book of Paradise Lost he makes Adam state + the difficulties of the Ptolemaic system, and then brings forward an angel + to make the usual orthodox answers. Later, Milton seems to lean toward the + Copernican theory, for, referring to the earth, he says: + </p> + <p> + "Or she from west her silent course advance With inoffensive pace, that + spinning sleeps On her soft axle, while she faces even And bears thee soft + with the smooth air along." + </p> + <p> + English orthodoxy continued to assert itself. In 1724 John Hutchinson, + professor at Cambridge, published his Moses' Principia, a system of + philosophy in which he sought to build up a complete physical system of + the universe from the Bible. In this he assaulted the Newtonian theory as + "atheistic," and led the way for similar attacks by such Church teachers + as Horne, Duncan Forbes, and Jones of Nayland. But one far greater than + these involved himself in this view. That same limitation of his reason by + the simple statements of Scripture which led John Wesley to declare that, + "unless witchcraft is true, nothing in the Bible is true," led him, while + giving up the Ptolemaic theory and accepting in a general way the + Copernican, to suspect the demonstrations of Newton. Happily, his inborn + nobility of character lifted him above any bitterness or persecuting + spirit, or any imposition of doctrinal tests which could prevent those who + came after him from finding their way to the truth. + </p> + <p> + But in the midst of this vast expanse of theologic error signs of right + reason began to appear, both in England and America. Noteworthy is it that + Cotton Mather, bitter as was his orthodoxy regarding witchcraft, accepted, + in 1721, the modern astronomy fully, with all its consequences. + </p> + <p> + In the following year came an even more striking evidence that the new + scientific ideas were making their way in England. In 1722 Thomas Burnet + published the sixth edition of his Sacred Theory of the Earth. In this he + argues, as usual, to establish the scriptural doctrine of the earth's + stability; but in his preface he sounds a remarkable warning. He mentions + the great mistake into which St. Augustine led the Church regarding the + doctrine of the antipodes, and says, "If within a few years or in the next + generation it should prove as certain and demonstrable that the earth is + moved, as it is now that there are antipodes, those that have been zealous + against it, and engaged the Scripture in the controversy, would have the + same reason to repent of their forwardness that St. Augustine would now, + if he were still alive." + </p> + <p> + Fortunately, too, Protestantism had no such power to oppose the + development of the Copernican ideas as the older Church had enjoyed. Yet + there were some things in its warfare against science even more + indefensible. In 1772 the famous English expedition for scientific + discovery sailed from England under Captain Cook. Greatest by far of all + the scientific authorities chosen to accompany it was Dr. Priestley. Sir + Joseph Banks had especially invited him. But the clergy of Oxford and + Cambridge interfered. Priestley was considered unsound in his views of the + Trinity; it was evidently suspected that this might vitiate his + astronomical observations; he was rejected, and the expedition crippled. + </p> + <p> + The orthodox view of astronomy lingered on in other branches of the + Protestant Church. In Germany even Leibnitz attacked the Newtonian theory + of gravitation on theological grounds, though he found some little + consolation in thinking that it might be used to support the Lutheran + doctrine of consubstantiation. + </p> + <p> + In Holland the Calvinistic Church was at first strenuous against the whole + new system, but we possess a comical proof that Calvinism even in its + strongholds was powerless against it; for in 1642 Blaer published at + Amsterdam his book on the use of globes, and, in order to be on the safe + side, devoted one part of his work to the Ptolemaic and the other to the + Copernican scheme, leaving the benevolent reader to take his choice.(69) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (69) For the attitude of Leibnetz, Hutchinson, and the others named +toward the Newtonian theory, see Lecky, History of England in the +Eighteenth Century, chap. ix. For John Wesley, see his Compendium of +Natural Philosophy, being a Survey of the Wisdom of God in the Creation, +London, 1784. See also Leslie Stephen, Eighteenth Century, vol. ii, +p. 413. For Owen, see his Works, vol. xix, p. 310. For Cotton Mather's +view, see The Christian Philosopher, London, 1721, especially pp. 16 and +17. For the case of Priestley, see Weld, History of the Royal Society, +vol. ii, p. 56, for the facts and the admirable letter of Priestley upon +this rejection. For Blaer, see his L'Usage des Globes, Amsterdam, 1642. +</pre> + <p> + Nor have efforts to renew the battle in the Protestant Church been wanting + in these latter days. The attempt in the Church of England, in 1864, to + fetter science, which was brought to ridicule by Herschel, Bowring, and De + Morgan; the assemblage of Lutheran clergy at Berlin, in 1868, to protest + against "science falsely so called," are examples of these. Fortunately, + to the latter came Pastor Knak, and his denunciations of the Copernican + theory as absolutely incompatible with a belief in the Bible, dissolved + the whole assemblage in ridicule. + </p> + <p> + In its recent dealings with modern astronomy the wisdom of the Catholic + Church in the more civilized countries has prevented its yielding to some + astounding errors into which one part of the Protestant Church has fallen + heedlessly. + </p> + <p> + Though various leaders in the older Church have committed the absurd error + of allowing a text-book and sundry review articles to appear which grossly + misstate the Galileo episode, with the certainty of ultimately undermining + confidence in her teachings among her more thoughtful young men, she has + kept clear of the folly of continuing to tie her instruction, and the + acceptance of our sacred books, to an adoption of the Ptolemaic theory. + </p> + <p> + Not so with American Lutheranism. In 1873 was published in St. Louis, at + the publishing house of the Lutheran Synod of Missouri, a work entitled + Astronomische Unterredung, the author being well known as a late president + of a Lutheran Teachers' Seminary. + </p> + <p> + No attack on the whole modern system of astronomy could be more bitter. On + the first page of the introduction the author, after stating the two + theories, asks, "Which is right?" and says: "It would be very simple to me + which is right, if it were only a question of human import. But the wise + and truthful God has expressed himself on this matter in the Bible. The + entire Holy Scripture settles the question that the earth is the principal + body (Hauptkorper) of the universe, that it stands fixed, and that sun and + moon only serve to light it." + </p> + <p> + The author then goes on to show from Scripture the folly, not only of + Copernicus and Newton, but of a long line of great astronomers in more + recent times. He declares: "Let no one understand me as inquiring first + where truth is to be found—in the Bible or with the astronomers. No; + I know that beforehand—that my God never lies, never makes a + mistake; out of his mouth comes only truth, when he speaks of the + structure of the universe, of the earth, sun, moon, and stars.... + </p> + <p> + "Because the truth of the Holy Scripture is involved in this, therefore + the above question is of the highest importance to me.... Scientists and + others lean upon the miserable reed (Rohrstab) that God teaches only the + order of salvation, but not the order of the universe." + </p> + <p> + Very noteworthy is the fact that this late survival of an ancient belief + based upon text-worship is found, not in the teachings of any zealous + priest of the mother Church, but in those of an eminent professor in that + branch of Protestantism which claims special enlightenment.(70) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (70) For the amusing details of the attempt in the English Church to +repress science, and of the way in which it was met, see De Morgan, +Paradoxes, p. 42. For Pastor Knak and his associates, see the Revue des +Deux Mondes, 1868. Of the recent Lutheran works against the Copernican +astronomy, see especially Astronomische Unterredung zwischen einem +Liebhaber der Astronomie und mehreren beruhmten Astronomer der Neuzeit, +by J. C. W. L., St. Louis, 1873. +</pre> + <p> + Nor has the warfare against the dead champions of science been carried on + by the older Church alone. + </p> + <p> + On the 10th of May, 1859, Alexander von Humboldt was buried. His labours + had been among the glories of the century, and his funeral was one of the + most imposing that Berlin had ever seen. Among those who honoured + themselves by their presence was the prince regent, afterward the Emperor + William I; but of the clergy it was observed that none were present save + the officiating clergyman and a few regarded as unorthodox.(71) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (71) See Bruhns and Lassell, Life of Humboldt, London, 1873, vol. ii, p. +411. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0018" id="link2H_4_0018"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + V. RESULTS OF THE VICTORY OVER GALILEO. + </h2> + <p> + We return now to the sequel of the Galileo case. + </p> + <p> + Having gained their victory over Galileo, living and dead, having used it + to scare into submission the professors of astronomy throughout Europe, + conscientious churchmen exulted. Loud was their rejoicing that the + "heresy," the "infidelity" the "atheism" involved in believing that the + earth revolves about its axis and moves around the sun had been crushed by + the great tribunal of the Church, acting in strict obedience to the + expressed will of one Pope and the written order of another. As we have + seen, all books teaching this hated belief were put upon the Index of + books forbidden to Christians, and that Index was prefaced by a bull + enforcing this condemnation upon the consciences of the faithful + throughout the world, and signed by the reigning Pope. + </p> + <p> + The losses to the world during this complete triumph of theology were even + more serious than at first appears: one must especially be mentioned. + There was then in Europe one of the greatest thinkers ever given to + mankind—Rene Descartes. Mistaken though many of his reasonings were, + they bore a rich fruitage of truth. He had already done a vast work. His + theory of vortices—assuming a uniform material regulated by physical + laws—as the beginning of the visible universe, though it was but a + provisional hypothesis, had ended the whole old theory of the heavens with + the vaulted firmament and the direction of the planetary movements by + angels, which even Kepler had allowed. The scientific warriors had stirred + new life in him, and he was working over and summing up in his mighty mind + all the researches of his time. The result would have made an epoch in + history. His aim was to combine all knowledge and thought into a Treatise + on the World, and in view of this he gave eleven years to the study of + anatomy alone. But the fate of Galileo robbed him of all hope, of all + courage; the battle seemed lost; he gave up his great plan forever.(72) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (72) For Descartes's discouragement, see Humboldt, Cosmos, London, +1851, vol iii, p. 21; also Lange, Geschichte des Materialismus, English +translation, vol. i, pp. 248, 249, where the letters of Descartes are +given, showing his despair, and the relinquishment of his best thoughts +and works in order to preserve peace with the Church; also Saisset, +Descartes et ses Precurseurs, pp. 100 et seq.; also Jolly, Histoire du +Mouvement intellectuel au XVI Siecle, vol. i, p. 390. +</pre> + <p> + But ere long it was seen that this triumph of the Church was in reality a + prodigious defeat. From all sides came proofs that Copernicus and Galileo + were right; and although Pope Urban and the inquisition held Galileo in + strict seclusion, forbidding him even to SPEAK regarding the double motion + of the earth; and although this condemnation of "all books which affirm + the motion of the earth" was kept on the Index; and although the papal + bull still bound the Index and the condemnations in it on the consciences + of the faithful; and although colleges and universities under Church + control were compelled to teach the old doctrine—it was seen by + clear-sighted men everywhere that this victory of the Church was a + disaster to the victors. + </p> + <p> + New champions pressed on. Campanella, full of vagaries as he was, wrote + his Apology for Galileo, though for that and other heresies, religious, + and political, he seven times underwent torture. + </p> + <p> + And Kepler comes: he leads science on to greater victories. Copernicus, + great as he was, could not disentangle scientific reasoning entirely from + the theological bias: the doctrines of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas as to + the necessary superiority of the circle had vitiated the minor features of + his system, and left breaches in it through which the enemy was not slow + to enter; but Kepler sees these errors, and by wonderful genius and vigour + he gives to the world the three laws which bear his name, and this + fortress of science is complete. He thinks and speaks as one inspired. His + battle is severe. He is solemnly warned by the Protestant Consistory of + Stuttgart "not to throw Christ's kingdom into confusion with his silly + fancies," and as solemnly ordered to "bring his theory of the world into + harmony with Scripture": he is sometimes abused, sometimes ridiculed, + sometimes imprisoned. Protestants in Styria and Wurtemberg, Catholics in + Austria and Bohemia, press upon him but Newton, Halley, Bradley, and other + great astronomers follow, and to science remains the victory.(73) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (73) For Campanella, see Amabile, Fra Tommaso Campanella, Naples, 1882, +especially vol. iii; also Libri, vol. iv, pp. 149 et seq. Fromundus, +speaking of Kepler's explanation, says, "Vix teneo ebullientem risum." +This is almost equal to the New York Church Journal, speaking of John +Stuart Mill as "that small sciolist," and of the preface to Dr. Draper's +great work as "chippering." How a journal, generally so fair in its +treatment of such subjects, can condescend to such weapons is one of the +wonders of modern journalism. For the persecution of Kepler, see Heller, +Geschichte der Physik, vol. i, pp. 281 et seq; also Reuschle, Kepler und +die Astronomie, Frankfurt a. M., 1871, pp. 87 et seq. There is a poetic +justice in the fact that these two last-named books come from Wurtemberg +professors. See also The New-Englander for March, 1884, p. 178. +</pre> + <p> + Yet this did not end the war. During the seventeenth century, in France, + after all the splendid proofs added by Kepler, no one dared openly teach + the Copernican theory, and Cassini, the great astronomer, never declared + for it. In 1672 the Jesuit Father Riccioli declared that there were + precisely forty-nine arguments for the Copernican theory and seventy-seven + against it. Even after the beginning of the eighteenth century—long + after the demonstrations of Sir Isaac Newton—Bossuet, the great + Bishop of Meaux, the foremost theologian that France has ever produced, + declared it contrary to Scripture. + </p> + <p> + Nor did matters seem to improve rapidly during that century. In England, + John Hutchinson, as we have seen, published in 1724 his Moses' Principia + maintaining that the Hebrew Scriptures are a perfect system of natural + philosophy, and are opposed to the Newtonian system of gravitation; and, + as we have also seen, he was followed by a long list of noted men in the + Church. In France, two eminent mathematicians published in 1748 an edition + of Newton's Principia; but, in order to avert ecclesiastical censure, they + felt obliged to prefix to it a statement absolutely false. Three years + later, Boscovich, the great mathematician of the Jesuits, used these + words: "As for me, full of respect for the Holy Scriptures and the decree + of the Holy Inquisition, I regard the earth as immovable; nevertheless, + for simplicity in explanation I will argue as if the earth moves; for it + is proved that of the two hypotheses the appearances favour this idea." + </p> + <p> + In Germany, especially in the Protestant part of it, the war was even more + bitter, and it lasted through the first half of the eighteenth century. + Eminent Lutheran doctors of divinity flooded the country with treatises to + prove that the Copernican theory could not be reconciled with Scripture. + In the theological seminaries and in many of the universities where + clerical influence was strong they seemed to sweep all before them; and + yet at the middle of the century we find some of the clearest-headed of + them aware of the fact that their cause was lost.(74) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (74) For Cassini's position, see Henri Martin, Histoire de France, vol. +xiii, p. 175. For Riccioli, see Daunou, Etudes Historiques, vol. ii, +p. 439. For Boussuet, see Bertrand, p. 41. For Hutchinson, see Lyell, +Principles of Geology, p. 48. For Wesley, see his work, already cited. +As to Boscovich, his declaration, mentioned in the text, was in 1746, +but in 1785 he seemed to feel his position in view of history, and +apologized abjectly; Bertrand, pp. 60, 61. See also Whewell's notice +of Le Sueur and Jacquier's introduction to their edition of Newton's +Principia. For the struggle in Germany, see Zoeckler, Geschichte der +Beziehungenzwischen Theologie und Naturwissenschaft, vol. ii, pp. 45 et +seq. +</pre> + <p> + In 1757 the most enlightened perhaps in the whole line of the popes, + Benedict XIV, took up the matter, and the Congregation of the Index + secretly allowed the ideas of Copernicus to be tolerated. Yet in 1765 + Lalande, the great French astronomer, tried in vain at Rome to induce the + authorities to remove Galileo's works from the Index. Even at a date far + within our own nineteenth century the authorities of many universities in + Catholic Europe, and especially those in Spain, excluded the Newtonian + system. In 1771 the greatest of them all, the University of Salamanca, + being urged to teach physical science, refused, making answer as follows: + "Newton teaches nothing that would make a good logician or metaphysician; + and Gassendi and Descartes do not agree so well with revealed truth as + Aristotle does." + </p> + <p> + Vengeance upon the dead also has continued far into our own century. On + the 5th of May, 1829, a great multitude assembled at Warsaw to honour the + memory of Copernicus and to unveil Thorwaldsen's statue of him. + </p> + <p> + Copernicus had lived a pious, Christian life; he had been beloved for + unostentatious Christian charity; with his religious belief no fault had + ever been found; he was a canon of the Church at Frauenberg, and over his + grave had been written the most touching of Christian epitaphs. Naturally, + then, the people expected a religious service; all was understood to be + arranged for it; the procession marched to the church and waited. The hour + passed, and no priest appeared; none could be induced to appear. + Copernicus, gentle, charitable, pious, one of the noblest gifts of God to + religion as well as to science, was evidently still under the ban. Five + years after that, his book was still standing on the Index of books + prohibited to Christians. + </p> + <p> + The edition of the Index published in 1819 was as inexorable toward the + works of Copernicus and Galileo as its predecessors had been; but in the + year 1820 came a crisis. Canon Settele, Professor of Astronomy at Rome, + had written an elementary book in which the Copernican system was taken + for granted. The Master of the Sacred Palace, Anfossi, as censor of the + press, refused to allow the book to be printed unless Settele revised his + work and treated the Copernican theory as merely a hypothesis. On this + Settele appealed to Pope Pius VII, and the Pope referred the matter to the + Congregation of the Holy Office. At last, on the 16th of August, 1820, it + was decided that Settele might teach the Copernican system as established, + and this decision was approved by the Pope. This aroused considerable + discussion, but finally, on the 11th of September, 1822, the cardinals of + the Holy Inquisition graciously agreed that "the printing and publication + of works treating of the motion of the earth and the stability of the sun, + in accordance with the general opinion of modern astronomers, is permitted + at Rome." This decree was ratified by Pius VII, but it was not until + thirteen years later, in 1835, that there was issued an edition of the + Index from which the condemnation of works defending the double motion of + the earth was left out. + </p> + <p> + This was not a moment too soon, for, as if the previous proofs had not + been sufficient, each of the motions of the earth was now absolutely + demonstrated anew, so as to be recognised by the ordinary observer. The + parallax of fixed stars, shown by Bessel as well as other noted + astronomers in 1838, clinched forever the doctrine of the revolution of + the earth around the sun, and in 1851 the great experiment of Foucault + with the pendulum showed to the human eye the earth in motion around its + own axis. To make the matter complete, this experiment was publicly made + in one of the churches at Rome by the eminent astronomer, Father Secchi, + of the Jesuits, in 1852—just two hundred and twenty years after the + Jesuits had done so much to secure Galileo's condemnation.(75) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (75) For good statements of the final action of the Church in the +matter, see Gebler; also Zoeckler, ii, 352. See also Bertrand, +Fondateurs de l'Astronomie moderne, p. 61; Flammarion, Vie de Copernic, +chap. ix. As to the time when the decree of condemnation was repealed, +there have been various pious attempts to make it earlier than the +reality. Artaud, p. 307, cited in an apologetic article in the Dublin +Review, September, 1865, says that Galileo's famous dialogue was +published in 1714, at Padua, entire, and with the usual approbations. +The same article also declares that in 1818, the ecclesiastical decrees +were repealed by Pius VII in full Consistory. Whewell accepts this; +but Cantu, an authority favourable to the Church, acknowledges that +Copernicus's work remained on the Index as late as 1835 (Cantu, Histoire +universelle, vol. xv, p. 483); and with this Th. Martin, not less +favourable to the Church, but exceedingly careful as to the facts, +agrees; and the most eminent authority of all, Prof. Reusch, of Bonn, +in his Der Index der vorbotenen Bucher, Bonn, 1885, vol. ii, p. 396, +confirms the above statement in the text. For a clear statement of +Bradley's exquisite demonstration of the Copernican theory by reasonings +upon the rapidity of light, etc., and Foucault's exhibition of the +rotation of the earth by the pendulum experiment, see Hoefer, Histoire +de l'Astronomie, pp. 492 et seq. For more recent proofs of the +Copernican theory, by the discoveries of Bunsen, Bischoff, Benzenberg, +and others, see Jevons, Principles of Science. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0019" id="link2H_4_0019"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VI. THE RETREAT OF THE CHURCH AFTER ITS VICTORY OVER GALILEO. + </h2> + <p> + Any history of the victory of astronomical science over dogmatic theology + would be incomplete without some account of the retreat made by the Church + from all its former positions in the Galileo case. + </p> + <p> + The retreat of the Protestant theologians was not difficult. A little + skilful warping of Scripture, a little skilful use of that time-honoured + phrase, attributed to Cardinal Baronius, that the Bible is given to teach + us, not how the heavens go, but how men go to heaven, and a free use of + explosive rhetoric against the pursuing army of scientists, sufficed. + </p> + <p> + But in the older Church it was far less easy. The retreat of the + sacro-scientific army of Church apologists lasted through two centuries. + </p> + <p> + In spite of all that has been said by these apologists, there no longer + remains the shadow of a doubt that the papal infallibility was committed + fully and irrevocably against the double revolution of the earth. As the + documents of Galileo's trial now published show, Paul V, in 1616, pushed + on with all his might the condemnation of Galileo and of the works of + Copernicus and of all others teaching the motion of the earth around its + own axis and around the sun. So, too, in the condemnation of Galileo in + 1633, and in all the proceedings which led up to it and which followed it, + Urban VIII was the central figure. Without his sanction no action could + have been taken. + </p> + <p> + 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) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (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. For +the authentic publication of the bull, see preface to the Index of 1664, +where the bull appears, signed by the Pope. The Rev. Mr. Roberts and +Mr. St. George Mivart are Roman Catholics and both acknowledge that the +papal sanction was fully given. +</pre> + <p> + The position of the mother Church had been thus made especially difficult; + and the first important move in retreat by the apologists was the + statement that Galileo was condemned, not because he affirmed the motion + of the earth, but because he supported it from Scripture. There was a + slight appearance of truth in this. Undoubtedly, Galileo's letters to + Castelli and the grand duchess, in which he attempted to show that his + astronomical doctrines were not opposed to Scripture, gave a new stir to + religious bigotry. For a considerable time, then, this quibble served its + purpose; even a hundred and fifty years after Galileo's condemnation it + was renewed by the Protestant Mallet du Pan, in his wish to gain favour + from the older Church. + </p> + <p> + But nothing can be more absurd, in the light of the original documents + recently brought out of the Vatican archives, than to make this contention + now. The letters of Galileo to Castelli and the Grand-Duchess were not + published until after the condemnation; and, although the Archbishop of + Pisa had endeavoured to use them against him, they were but casually + mentioned in 1616, and entirely left out of view in 1633. What was + condemned in 1616 by the Sacred Congregation held in the presence of Pope + Paul V, as "ABSURD, FALSE IN THEOLOGY, AND HERETICAL, BECAUSE ABSOLUTELY + CONTRARY TO HOLY SCRIPTURE," was the proposition that "THE SUN IS THE + CENTRE ABOUT WHICH THE EARTH REVOLVES"; and what was condemned as "ABSURD, + FALSE IN PHILOSOPHY, AND FROM A THEOLOGIC POINT OF VIEW, AT LEAST, OPPOSED + TO THE TRUE FAITH," was the proposition that "THE EARTH IS NOT THE CENTRE + OF THE UNIVERSE AND IMMOVABLE, BUT HAS A DIURNAL MOTION." + </p> + <p> + And again, what Galileo was made, by express order of Pope Urban, and by + the action of the Inquisition under threat of torture, to abjure in 1633, + was "THE ERROR AND HERESY OF THE MOVEMENT OF THE EARTH." + </p> + <p> + What the Index condemned under sanction of the bull issued by Alexander + VII in 1664 was, "ALL BOOKS TEACHING THE MOVEMENT OF THE EARTH AND THE + STABILITY OF THE SUN." + </p> + <p> + What the Index, prefaced by papal bulls, infallibly binding its contents + upon the consciences of the faithful, for nearly two hundred years + steadily condemned was, "ALL BOOKS WHICH AFFIRM THE MOTION OF THE EARTH." + </p> + <p> + Not one of these condemnations was directed against Galileo "for + reconciling his ideas with Scripture."(77) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (77) For the original trial documents, copied carefully from the Vatican +manuscripts, see the Roman Catholic authority, L'Epinois, especially +p. 35, where the principal document is given in its original Latin; +see also Gebler, Die Acten des galilei'schen Processes, for still more +complete copies of the same documents. For minute information regarding +these documents and their publication, see Favaro, Miscellanea Galileana +Inedita, forming vol. xxii, part iii, of the Memoirs of the Venetian +Institute for 1887, and especially pp. 891 and following. +</pre> + <p> + Having been dislodged from this point, the Church apologists sought cover + under the statement that Galileo was condemned not for heresy, but for + contumacy and want of respect toward the Pope. + </p> + <p> + There was a slight chance, also, for this quibble: no doubt Urban VIII, + one of the haughtiest of pontiffs, was induced by Galileo's enemies to + think that he had been treated with some lack of proper etiquette: first, + by Galileo's adhesion to his own doctrines after his condemnation in 1616; + and, next, by his supposed reference in the Dialogue of 1632 to the + arguments which the Pope had used against him. + </p> + <p> + But it would seem to be a very poor service rendered to the doctrine of + papal infallibility to claim that a decision so immense in its + consequences could be influenced by the personal resentment of the + reigning pontiff. + </p> + <p> + Again, as to the first point, the very language of the various sentences + shows the folly of this assertion; for these sentences speak always of + "heresy" and never of "contumacy." As to the last point, the display of + the original documents settled that forever. They show Galileo from first + to last as most submissive toward the Pope, and patient under the papal + arguments and exactions. He had, indeed, expressed his anger at times + against his traducers; but to hold this the cause of the judgment against + him is to degrade the whole proceedings, and to convict Paul V, Urban + VIII, Bellarmin, the other theologians, and the Inquisition, of direct + falsehood, since they assigned entirely different reasons for their + conduct. From this position, therefore, the assailants retreated.(78) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (78) The invention of the "contumacy" quibble seems due to Monsignor +Marini, who appears also to have manipulated the original documents to +prove it. Even Whewell was evidently somewhat misled by him, but Whewell +wrote before L'Epinois had shown all the documents, and under the +supposition that Marini was an honest man. +</pre> + <p> + The next rally was made about the statement that the persecution of + Galileo was the result of a quarrel between Aristotelian professors on one + side and professors favouring the experimental method on the other. But + this position was attacked and carried by a very simple statement. If the + divine guidance of the Church is such that it can be dragged into a + professorial squabble, and made the tool of a faction in bringing about a + most disastrous condemnation of a proved truth, how did the Church at that + time differ from any human organization sunk into decrepitude, managed + nominally by simpletons, but really by schemers? If that argument be true, + the condition of the Church was even worse than its enemies have declared + it; and amid the jeers of an unfeeling world the apologists sought new + shelter. + </p> + <p> + The next point at which a stand was made was the assertion that the + condemnation of Galileo was "provisory"; but this proved a more + treacherous shelter than the others. The wording of the decree of + condemnation itself is a sufficient answer to this claim. When doctrines + have been solemnly declared, as those of Galileo were solemnly declared + under sanction of the highest authority in the Church, "contrary to the + sacred Scriptures," "opposed to the true faith," and "false and absurd in + theology and philosophy"—to say that such declarations are + "provisory" is to say that the truth held by the Church is not immutable; + from this, then, the apologists retreated.(79) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (79) This argument also seems to have been foisted upon the world by the +wily Monsignor Marini. +</pre> + <p> + Still another contention was made, in some respects more curious than any + other: it was, mainly, that Galileo "was no more a victim of Catholics + than of Protestants; for they more than the Catholic theologians impelled + the Pope to the action taken."(80) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (80) See the Rev. A. M. Kirsch on Professor Huxley and Evolution, in The +American Catholic Quarterly, October, 1877. The article is, as a whole, +remarkably fair-minded, and in the main, just, as to the Protestant +attitude, and as to the causes underlying the whole action against +Galileo. +</pre> + <p> + But if Protestantism could force the papal hand in a matter of this + magnitude, involving vast questions of belief and far-reaching questions + of policy, what becomes of "inerrancy"—of special protection and + guidance of the papal authority in matters of faith? + </p> + <p> + While this retreat from position to position was going on, there was a + constant discharge of small-arms, in the shape of innuendoes, hints, and + sophistries: every effort was made to blacken Galileo's private character: + the irregularities of his early life were dragged forth, and stress was + even laid upon breaches of etiquette; but this succeeded so poorly that + even as far back as 1850 it was thought necessary to cover the retreat by + some more careful strategy. + </p> + <p> + This new strategy is instructive. The original documents of the Galileo + trial had been brought during the Napoleonic conquests to Paris; but in + 1846 they were returned to Rome by the French Government, on the express + pledge by the papal authorities that they should be published. In 1850, + after many delays on various pretexts, the long-expected publication + appeared. The personage charged with presenting them to the world was + Monsignor Marini. This ecclesiastic was of a kind which has too often + afflicted both the Church and the world at large. Despite the solemn + promise of the papal court, the wily Marini became the instrument of the + Roman authorities in evading the promise. By suppressing a document here, + and interpolating a statement there, he managed to give plausible + standing-ground for nearly every important sophistry ever broached to save + the infallibility of the Church and destroy the reputation of Galileo. He + it was who supported the idea that Galileo was "condemned not for heresy, + but for contumacy." + </p> + <p> + The first effect of Monsignor Marini's book seemed useful in covering the + retreat of the Church apologists. Aided by him, such vigorous writers as + Ward were able to throw up temporary intrenchments between the Roman + authorities and the indignation of the world. + </p> + <p> + But some time later came an investigator very different from Monsignor + Marini. This was a Frenchman, M. L'Epinois. Like Marini, L'Epinois was + devoted to the Church; but, unlike Marini, he could not lie. Having + obtained access in 1867 to the Galileo documents at the Vatican, he + published several of the most important, without suppression or + pious-fraudulent manipulation. This made all the intrenchments based upon + Marini's statements untenable. Another retreat had to be made. + </p> + <p> + And now came the most desperate effort of all. The apologetic army, + reviving an idea which the popes and the Church had spurned for centuries, + declared that the popes AS POPES had never condemned the doctrines of + Copernicus and Galileo; that they had condemned them as men simply; that + therefore the Church had never been committed to them; that the + condemnation was made by the cardinals of the inquisition and index; and + that the Pope had evidently been restrained by interposition of Providence + from signing their condemnation. Nothing could show the desperation of the + retreating party better than jugglery like this. The fact is, that in the + official account of the condemnation by Bellarmin, in 1616, he declares + distinctly that he makes this condemnation "in the name of His Holiness + the Pope."(81) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (81) See the citation from the Vatican manuscript given in Gebler, p. +78. +</pre> + <p> + Again, from Pope Urban downward, among the Church authorities of the + seventeenth century the decision was always acknowledged to be made by the + Pope and the Church. Urban VIII spoke of that of 1616 as made by Pope Paul + V and the Church, and of that of 1633 as made by himself and the Church. + Pope Alexander VII in 1664, in his bull Speculatores, solemnly sanctioned + the condemnation of all books affirming the earth's movement.(82) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (82) For references by Urban VIII to the condemnation as made by Pope +Paul V see pp. 136, 144, and elsewhere in Martin, who much against +his will is forced to allow this. See also Roberts, Pontifical decrees +against the Earth's Movement, and St. George Mivart's article, as above +quoted; also Reusch, Index der verbotenen Bucher, Bonn, 1885, vol. ii, +pp. 29 et seq. +</pre> + <p> + When Gassendi attempted to raise the point that the decision against + Copernicus and Galileo was not sanctioned by the Church as such, an + eminent theological authority, Father Lecazre, rector of the College of + Dijon, publicly contradicted him, and declared that it "was not certain + cardinals, but the supreme authority of the Church," that had condemned + Galileo; and to this statement the Pope and other Church authorities gave + consent either openly or by silence. When Descartes and others attempted + to raise the same point, they were treated with contempt. Father Castelli, + who had devoted himself to Galileo, and knew to his cost just what the + condemnation meant and who made it, takes it for granted, in his letter to + the papal authorities, that it was made by the Church. Cardinal Querenghi, + in his letters; the ambassador Guicciardini, in his dispatches; Polacco, + in his refutation; the historian Viviani, in his biography of Galileo—all + writing under Church inspection and approval at the time, took the view + that the Pope and the Church condemned Galileo, and this was never denied + at Rome. The Inquisition itself, backed by the greatest theologian of the + time (Bellarmin), took the same view. Not only does he declare that he + makes the condemnation "in the name of His Holiness the Pope," but we have + the Roman Index, containing the condemnation for nearly two hundred years, + prefaced by a solemn bull of the reigning Pope binding this condemnation + on the consciences of the whole Church, and declaring year after year that + "all books which affirm the motion of the earth" are damnable. To attempt + to face all this, added to the fact that Galileo was required to abjure + "the heresy of the movement of the earth" by written order of the Pope, + was soon seen to be impossible. Against the assertion that the Pope was + not responsible we have all this mass of testimony, and the bull of + Alexander VII in 1664.(83) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (83) For Lecazre's answer to Gassendi, see Martin, pp. 146, 147. For the +attempt to make the crimes of Galileo breach of etiquette, see Dublin +Review, as above. Whewell, vol. i, p. 283. Citation from Marini: +"Galileo was punished for trifling with the authorities, to which +he refused to submit, and was punished for obstinate contumacy, not +heresy." The sufficient answer to all this is that the words of the +inflexible sentence designating the condemned books are "libri omnes +qui affirmant telluris motum." See Bertrand, p. 59. As to the idea +that "Galileo was punished for not his opinion, but for basing it on +Scripture," the answer may be found in the Roman Index of 1704, in which +are noted for condemnation "Libri omnes docentes mobilitatem terrae et +immobilitatem solis." For the way in which, when it was found convenient +in argument, Church apologists insisted that it WAS "the Supreme Chief +of the Church by a pontifical decree, and not certain cardinals," who +condemned Galileo and his doctrine, see Father Lecazre's letter to +Gassendi, in Flammarion, Pluralite des Mondes, p. 427, and Urban +VIII's own declarations as given by Martin. For the way in which, +when necessary, Church apologists asserted the very contrary of this, +declaring that it was "issued in a doctrinal degree of the Congregation +of the Index, and NOT as the Holy Father's teaching," see Dublin Review, +September, 1865. +</pre> + <p> + This contention, then, was at last utterly given up by honest Catholics + themselves. In 1870 a Roman Catholic clergy man in England, the Rev. Mr. + Roberts, evidently thinking that the time had come to tell the truth, + published a book entitled The Pontifical Decrees against the Earth's + Movement, and in this exhibited the incontrovertible evidences that the + papacy had committed itself and its infallibility fully against the + movement of the earth. This Catholic clergyman showed from the original + record that Pope Paul V, in 1616, had presided over the tribunal + condemning the doctrine of the earth's movement, and ordering Galileo to + give up the opinion. He showed that Pope Urban VIII, in 1633, pressed on, + directed, and promulgated the final condemnation, making himself in all + these ways responsible for it. And, finally, he showed that Pope Alexander + VII, in 1664, by his bull—Speculatores domus Israel—attached + to the Index, condemning "all books which affirm the motion of the earth," + had absolutely pledged the papal infallibility against the earth's + movement. He also confessed that under the rules laid down by the highest + authorities in the Church, and especially by Sixtus V and Pius IX, there + was no escape from this conclusion. + </p> + <p> + Various theologians attempted to evade the force of the argument. Some, + like Dr. Ward and Bouix, took refuge in verbal niceties; some, like Dr. + Jeremiah Murphy, comforted themselves with declamation. The only result + was, that in 1885 came another edition of the Rev. Mr. Roberts's work, + even more cogent than the first; and, besides this, an essay by that + eminent Catholic, St. George Mivart, acknowledging the Rev. Mr. Roberts's + position to be impregnable, and declaring virtually that the Almighty + allowed Pope and Church to fall into complete error regarding the + Copernican theory, in order to teach them that science lies outside their + province, and that the true priesthood of scientific truth rests with + scientific investigators alone.(84) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (84) For the crushing answer by two eminent Roman Catholics to the +sophistries cited—an answer which does infinitely more credit to the +older Church that all the perverted ingenuity used in concealing the +truth or breaking the force of it—see Roberts and St. George Mivart, as +already cited. +</pre> + <p> + In spite, then, of all casuistry and special pleading, this sturdy honesty + ended the controversy among Catholics themselves, so far as fair-minded + men are concerned. + </p> + <p> + In recalling it at this day there stand out from its later phases two + efforts at compromise especially instructive, as showing the embarrassment + of militant theology in the nineteenth century. + </p> + <p> + The first of these was made by John Henry Newman in the days when he was + hovering between the Anglican and Roman Churches. In one of his sermons + before the University of Oxford he spoke as follows: + </p> + <p> + "Scripture says that the sun moves and the earth is stationary, and + science that the earth moves and the sun is comparatively at rest. How can + we determine which of these opposite statements is the very truth till we + know what motion is? If our idea of motion is but an accidental result of + our present senses, neither proposition is true and both are true: neither + true philosophically; both true for certain practical purposes in the + system in which they are respectively found." + </p> + <p> + In all anti-theological literature there is no utterance more hopelessly + skeptical. And for what were the youth of Oxford led into such bottomless + depths of disbelief as to any real existence of truth or any real + foundation for it? Simply to save an outworn system of interpretation into + which the gifted preacher happened to be born. + </p> + <p> + The other utterance was suggested by De Bonald and developed in the Dublin + Review, as is understood, by one of Newman's associates. This argument was + nothing less than an attempt to retreat under the charge of deception + against the Almighty himself. It is as follows: "But it may well be + doubted whether the Church did retard the progress of scientific truth. + What retarded it was the circumstance that God has thought fit to express + many texts of Scripture in words which have every appearance of denying + the earth's motion. But it is God who did this, not the Church; and, + moreover, since he saw fit so to act as to retard the progress of + scientific truth, it would be little to her discredit, even if it were + true, that she had followed his example." + </p> + <p> + This argument, like Mr. Gosse's famous attempt to reconcile geology to + Genesis—by supposing that for some inscrutable purpose God + deliberately deceived the thinking world by giving to the earth all the + appearances of development through long periods of time, while really + creating it in six days, each of an evening and a morning—seems only + to have awakened the amazed pity of thinking men. This, like the argument + of Newman, was a last desperate effort of Anglican and Roman divines to + save something from the wreckage of dogmatic theology.(85) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (85) For the quotation from Newman, see his Sermons on the Theory of +Religious Belief, sermon xiv, cited by Bishop Goodwin in Contemporary +Review for January, 1892. For the attempt to take the blame off the +shoulders of both Pope and cardinals and place it upon the Almighty, see +the article above cited, in the Dublin Review, September 1865, p. +419 and July, 1871, pp. 157 et seq. For a good summary of the various +attempts, and for replies to them in a spirit of judicial fairness, see +Th. Martin, Vie de Galilee, though there is some special pleading to +save the infallibility of the Pope and Church. The bibliography at the +close is very valuable. For details of Mr. Gosse's theory, as developed +in his Omphalos, see the chapter on Geology in this work. As to a still +later attempt, see Wegg-Prosser, Galileo and his Judges, London, 1889, +the main thing in it being an attempt to establish, against the honest +and honourable concessions of Catholics like Roberts and Mivart, +sundry far-fetched and wire-drawn distinctions between dogmatic and +disciplinary bulls—an attempt which will only deepen the distrust of +straightforward reasoners. The author's point of view is stated in +the words, "I have maintained that the Church has a right to lay her +restraining hand on the speculations of natural science" (p. 167). +</pre> + <p> + All these well-meaning defenders of the faith but wrought into the hearts + of great numbers of thinking men the idea that there is a necessary + antagonism between science and religion. Like the landsman who lashes + himself to the anchor of the sinking ship, they simply attached + Christianity by the strongest cords of logic which they could spin to + these mistaken ideas in science, and, could they have had their way, the + advance of knowledge would have ingulfed both together. + </p> + <p> + On the other hand, what had science done for religion? Simply this: + Copernicus, escaping persecution only by death; Giordano Bruno, burned + alive as a monster of impiety; Galileo, imprisoned and humiliated as the + worst of misbelievers; Kepler, accused of "throwing Christ's kingdom into + confusion with his silly fancies"; Newton, bitterly attacked for + "dethroning Providence," gave to religion stronger foundations and more + ennobling conceptions. + </p> + <p> + Under the old system, that princely astronomer, Alphonso of Castile, + seeing the inadequacy of the Ptolemaic theory, yet knowing no other, + startled Europe with the blasphemy that, if he had been present at + creation, he could have suggested a better order of the heavenly bodies. + Under the new system, Kepler, filled with a religious spirit, exclaimed, + "I do think the thoughts of God." The difference in religious spirit + between these two men marks the conquest made in this long struggle by + Science for Religion.(86) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (86) As a pendant to this ejaculation of Kepler may be cited the words +of Linnaeus: "Deum ominpotentem a tergo transeuntem vidi et obstupui." +</pre> + <p> + Nothing is more unjust than to cast especial blame for all this resistance + to science upon the Roman Church. The Protestant Church, though rarely + able to be so severe, has been more blameworthy. The persecution of + Galileo and his compeers by the older Church was mainly at the beginning + of the seventeenth century; the persecution of Robertson Smith, and + Winchell, and Woodrow, and Toy, and the young professors at Beyrout, by + various Protestant authorities, was near the end of the nineteenth + century. Those earlier persecutions by Catholicism were strictly in + accordance with principles held at that time by all religionists, Catholic + and Protestant, throughout the world; these later persecutions by + Protestants were in defiance of principles which all Protestants to-day + hold or pretend to hold, and none make louder claim to hold them than the + very sects which persecuted these eminent Christian men of our day, men + whose crime was that they were intelligent enough to accept the science of + their time, and honest enough to acknowledge it. + </p> + <p> + Most unjustly, then, would Protestantism taunt Catholicism for excluding + knowledge of astronomical truths from European Catholic universities in + the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, while real knowledge of + geological and biological and anthropological truth is denied or pitifully + diluted in so many American Protestant colleges and universities in the + nineteenth century. + </p> + <p> + Nor has Protestantism the right to point with scorn to the Catholic Index, + and to lay stress on the fact that nearly every really important book in + the last three centuries has been forbidden by it, so long as young men in + so many American Protestant universities and colleges are nursed with + "ecclesiastical pap" rather than with real thought, and directed to the + works of "solemnly constituted impostors," or to sundry "approved courses + of reading," while they are studiously kept aloof from such leaders in + modern thought as Darwin, Spencer, Huxley, Draper, and Lecky. + </p> + <p> + It may indeed be justly claimed by Protestantism that some of the former + strongholds of her bigotry have become liberalized; but, on the other + hand, Catholicism can point to the fact that Pope Leo XIII, now happily + reigning, has made a noble change as regards open dealing with documents. + The days of Monsignor Marini, it may be hoped, are gone. The Vatican + Library, with its masses of historical material, has been thrown open to + Protestant and Catholic scholars alike, and this privilege has been freely + used by men representing all shades of religious thought. + </p> + <p> + As to the older errors, the whole civilized world was at fault, Protestant + as well as Catholic. It was not the fault of religion; it was the fault of + that short-sighted linking of theological dogmas to scriptural texts + which, in utter defiance of the words and works of the Blessed Founder of + Christianity, narrow-minded, loud-voiced men are ever prone to substitute + for religion. Justly is it said by one of the most eminent among + contemporary Anglican divines, that "it is because they have mistaken the + dawn for a conflagration that theologians have so often been foes of + light."(87) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (87) For an exceedingly striking statement, by a Roman Catholic +historian of genius, as to the POPULAR demand for persecution and the +pressure of the lower strata in ecclesiastical organizations for cruel +measures, see Balmes's Le Protestantisme compare au Catholicisme, etc., +fourth edition, Paris, 1855, vol. ii. Archbishop Spaulding has something +of the same sort in his Miscellanies. L'Epinois, Galilee, p. 22 et seq., +stretches this as far as possible to save the reputation of the Church +in the Galileo matter. As to the various branches of the Protestant +Church in England and the United States, it is a matter of notoriety +that the smug, well-to-do laymen, whether elders, deacons, or vestrymen, +are, as a rule, far more prone to heresy-hunting than are their better +educated pastors. As to the cases of Messrs. Winchell, Woodrow, Toy, +and all the professors at Beyrout, with details, see the chapter in this +series on The Fall of Man and Anthropology. Among Protestant historians +who have recently been allowed full and free examination of the +treasures in the Vatican Library, and even those involving questions +between Catholicism and Protestantism, are von Sybel, of Berlin, and +Philip Schaff, of New York. It should be added that the latter went with +commendatory letters from eminent prelates in the Catholic Church in +America and Europe. For the closing citation, see Canon Farrar, History +of Interpretation, p. 432. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IV. FROM "SIGNS AND WONDERS" TO LAW IN THE HEAVENS. + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0021" id="link2H_4_0021"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I. THE THEOLOGICAL VIEW. + </h2> + <p> + Few things in the evolution of astronomy are more suggestive than the + struggle between the theological and the scientific doctrine regarding + comets—the passage from the conception of them as fire-balls flung + by an angry God for the purpose of scaring a wicked world, to a + recognition of them as natural in origin and obedient to law in movement. + Hardly anything throws a more vivid light upon the danger of wresting + texts of Scripture to preserve ideas which observation and thought have + superseded, and upon the folly of arraying ecclesiastical power against + scientific discovery.(88) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (88) The present study, after its appearance in the Popular Science +Monthly as a "new chapter in the Warfare of Science," was revised +and enlarged to nearly its present form, and read before the American +Historical Association, among whose papers it was published, in 1887, +under the title of A History of the Doctrine of Comets. +</pre> + <p> + Out of the ancient world had come a mass of beliefs regarding comets, + meteors, and eclipses; all these were held to be signs displayed from + heaven for the warning of mankind. Stars and meteors were generally + thought to presage happy events, especially the births of gods, heroes, + and great men. So firmly rooted was this idea that we constantly find + among the ancient nations traditions of lights in the heavens preceding + the birth of persons of note. The sacred books of India show that the + births of Crishna and of Buddha were announced by such heavenly + lights.(89) The sacred books of China tell of similar appearances at the + births of Yu, the founder of the first dynasty, and of the inspired sage, + Lao-tse. According to the Jewish legends, a star appeared at the birth of + Moses, and was seen by the Magi of Egypt, who informed the king; and when + Abraham was born an unusual star appeared in the east. The Greeks and + Romans cherished similar traditions. A heavenly light accompanied the + birth of Aesculapius, and the births of various Caesars were heralded in + like manner.(90) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (89) For Crishna, see Cox, Aryan Mythology, vol. ii, p. 133; the Vishnu +Purana (Wilson's translation), book v, chap. iv. As to lights at +the birth, or rather at the conception, of Buddha, see Bunsen, Angel +Messiah, pp. 22,23; Alabaster, Wheel of the Law (illustrations of +Buddhism), p. 102; Edwin Arnold, Light of Asia; Bp. Bigandet, Life +of Gaudama, the Burmese Buddha, p. 30; Oldenberg, Buddha (English +translation), part i, chap. ii. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (90) For Chinese legends regarding stars at the birth of Yu and +Lao-tse, see Thornton, History of China, vol. i, p. 137; also Pingre, +Cometographie, p. 245. Regarding stars at the birth of Moses and +Abraham, see Calmet, Fragments, part viii; Baring-Gould, Legends of Old +Testament Characters, chap. xxiv; Farrar, Life of Christ, chap. iii. As +to the Magi, see Higgins, Anacalypsis; Hooykaas, Ort, and Kuenen, +Bible for Learners, vol. iii. For Greek and Roman traditions, see Bell, +Pantheon, s. v. Aesculapius and Atreus; Gibbon, Decline and Fall, vol. +i, pp. 151, 590; Farrar, Life of Christ (American edition), p. 52; Cox, +Tales of Ancient Greece, pp. 41, 61, 62; Higgins, Anacalypsis, vol. i, +p. 322; also Suetonius, Caes., Julius, p.88, Claud., p. 463; Seneca, +Nat. Quaest, vol. 1, p. 1; Virgil, Ecl., vol. ix, p. 47; as well as +Ovid, Pliny, and others. +</pre> + <p> + The same conception entered into our Christian sacred books. Of all the + legends which grew in such luxuriance and beauty about the cradle of Jesus + of Nazareth, none appeals more directly to the highest poetic feeling than + that given by one of the evangelists, in which a star, rising in the east, + conducted the wise men to the manger where the Galilean peasant-child—the + Hope of Mankind, the Light of the World—was lying in poverty and + helplessness. + </p> + <p> + Among the Mohammedans we have a curious example of the same tendency + toward a kindly interpretation of stars and meteors, in the belief of + certain Mohammedan teachers that meteoric showers are caused by good + angels hurling missiles to drive evil angels out of the sky. + </p> + <p> + Eclipses were regarded in a very different light, being supposed to + express the distress of Nature at earthly calamities. The Greeks believed + that darkness overshadowed the earth at the deaths of Prometheus, Atreus, + Hercules, Aesculapius, and Alexander the Great. The Roman legends held + that at the death of Romulus there was darkness for six hours. In the + history of the Caesars occur portents of all three kinds; for at the death + of Julius the earth was shrouded in darkness, the birth of Augustus was + heralded by a star, and the downfall of Nero by a comet. So, too, in one + of the Christian legends clustering about the crucifixion, darkness + overspread the earth from the sixth to the ninth hour. Neither the silence + regarding it of the only evangelist who claims to have been present, nor + the fact that observers like Seneca and Pliny, who, though they carefully + described much less striking occurrences of the same sort and in more + remote regions, failed to note any such darkness even in Judea, have + availed to shake faith in an account so true to the highest poetic + instincts of humanity. + </p> + <p> + This view of the relations between Nature and man continued among both + Jews and Christians. According to Jewish tradition, darkness overspread + the earth for three days when the books of the Law were profaned by + translation into Greek. Tertullian thought an eclipse an evidence of God's + wrath against unbelievers. Nor has this mode of thinking ceased in modern + times. A similar claim was made at the execution of Charles I; and + Increase Mather thought an eclipse in Massachusetts an evidence of the + grief of Nature at the death of President Chauncey, of Harvard College. + Archbishop Sandys expected eclipses to be the final tokens of woe at the + destruction of the world, and traces of this feeling have come down to our + own time. + </p> + <p> + The quaint story of the Connecticut statesman who, when his associates in + the General Assembly were alarmed by an eclipse of the sun, and thought it + the beginning of the Day of Judgment, quietly ordered in candles, that he + might in any case be found doing his duty, marks probably the last + noteworthy appearance of the old belief in any civilized nation.(91) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (91) For Hindu theories, see Alabaster, Wheel of the Law, 11. For Greek +and Roman legends, See Higgins, Anacalypsis, vol. i, pp. 616, 617.; also +Suetonius, Caes., Julius, p. 88, Claud., p. 46; Seneca, Quaest. Nat., +vol. i, p. 1, vol. vii, p. 17; Pliny, Hist. Nat., vol. ii, p. 25; +Tacitus, Ann., vol. xiv, p. 22; Josephus, Antiq., vol. xiv, p. 12; and +the authorities above cited. For the tradition of the Jews regarding +the darkness of three days, see citation in Renan, Histoire du Peuple +Israel, vol. iv, chap. iv. For Tertullian's belief regarding the +significance of an eclipse, see the Ad Scapulum, chap. iii, in Migne, +Patrolog. Lat., vol. i, p. 701. For the claim regarding Charles I, see +a sermon preached before Charles II, cited by Lecky, England in the +Eighteenth Century, vol. i, p. 65. Mather thought, too, that it might +have something to do with the death of sundry civil functionaries of +the colonies; see his Discourse concerning comets, 1682. For Archbishop +Sandy's belief, see his eighteenth sermon (in Parker Soc. Publications). +The story of Abraham Davenport has been made familiar by the poem of +Whittier. +</pre> + <p> + In these beliefs regarding meteors and eclipses there was little + calculated to do harm by arousing that superstitious terror which is the + worst breeding-bed of cruelty. Far otherwise was it with the belief + regarding comets. During many centuries it gave rise to the direst + superstition and fanaticism. The Chaldeans alone among the ancient peoples + generally regarded comets without fear, and thought them bodies wandering + as harmless as fishes in the sea; the Pythagoreans alone among + philosophers seem to have had a vague idea of them as bodies returning at + fixed periods of time; and in all antiquity, so far as is known, one man + alone, Seneca, had the scientific instinct and prophetic inspiration to + give this idea definite shape, and to declare that the time would come + when comets would be found to move in accordance with natural law. Here + and there a few strong men rose above the prevailing superstition. The + Emperor Vespasian tried to laugh it down, and insisted that a certain + comet in his time could not betoken his death, because it was hairy, and + he bald; but such scoffing produced little permanent effect, and the + prophecy of Seneca was soon forgotten. These and similar isolated + utterances could not stand against the mass of opinion which upheld the + doctrine that comets are "signs and wonders."(92) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (92) For terror caused in Rome by comets, see Pingre, Cometographie, pp. +165, 166. For the Chaldeans, see Wolf, Geschichte der Astronomie, p. 10 +et seq., and p. 181 et seq.; also Pingre, chap. ii. For the Pythagorean +notions, see citations from Plutarch in Costard, History of Astronomy, +p. 283. For Seneca's prediction, see Guillemin, World of Comets +(translated by Glaisher), pp. 4, 5; also Watson, On Comets, p. 126. For +this feeling in antiquity generally, see the preliminary chapters of the +two works last cited. +</pre> + <p> + The belief that every comet is a ball of fire flung from the right hand of + an angry God to warn the grovelling dwellers of earth was received into + the early Church, transmitted through the Middle Ages to the Reformation + period, and in its transmission was made all the more precious by supposed + textual proofs from Scripture. The great fathers of the Church committed + themselves unreservedly to it. In the third century Origen, perhaps the + most influential of the earlier fathers of the universal Church in all + questions between science and faith, insisted that comets indicate + catastrophes and the downfall of empires and worlds. Bede, so justly + revered by the English Church, declared in the eighth century that "comets + portend revolutions of kingdoms, pestilence, war, winds, or heat"; and + John of Damascus, his eminent contemporary in the Eastern Church, took the + same view. Rabanus Maurus, the great teacher of Europe in the ninth + century, an authority throughout the Middle Ages, adopted Bede's opinion + fully. St. Thomas Aquinas, the great light of the universal Church in the + thirteenth century, whose works the Pope now reigning commends as the + centre and source of all university instruction, accepted and handed down + the same opinion. The sainted Albert the Great, the most noted genius of + the medieval Church in natural science, received and developed this + theory. These men and those who followed them founded upon scriptural + texts and theological reasonings a system that for seventeen centuries + defied every advance of thought.(93) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (93) For Origen, se his De Princip., vol. i, p. 7; also Maury, Leg. +pieuses, p. 203, note. For Bede and others, see De Nat., vol. xxiv; Joh. +Dam., De Fid. Or.,vol. ii, p. 7; Maury, La Magie et l'Astronomie, pp. +181, 182. For Albertus Magnus, see his Opera, vol. i, tr. iii, chaps. +x, xi. Among the texts of Scripture on which this belief rested was +especially Joel ii, 30, 31. +</pre> + <p> + The main evils thence arising were three: the paralysis of self-help, the + arousing of fanaticism, and the strengthening of ecclesiastical and + political tyranny. The first two of these evils—the paralysis of + self-help and the arousing of fanaticism—are evident throughout all + these ages. At the appearance of a comet we constantly see all + Christendom, from pope to peasant, instead of striving to avert war by + wise statesmanship, instead of striving to avert pestilence by observation + and reason, instead of striving to avert famine by skilful economy, + whining before fetiches, trying to bribe them to remove these signs of + God's wrath, and planning to wreak this supposed wrath of God upon + misbelievers. + </p> + <p> + As to the third of these evils—the strengthening of ecclesiastical + and civil despotism—examples appear on every side. It was natural + that hierarchs and monarchs whose births were announced by stars, or whose + deaths were announced by comets, should regard themselves as far above the + common herd, and should be so regarded by mankind; passive obedience was + thus strengthened, and the most monstrous assumptions of authority were + considered simply as manifestations of the Divine will. Shakespeare makes + Calphurnia say to Caesar: + </p> + <p> + "When beggars die, there are no comets seen; The heavens themselves blaze + forth the death of princes." + </p> + <p> + Galeazzo, the tyrant of Milan, expressing satisfaction on his deathbed + that his approaching end was of such importance as to be heralded by a + comet, is but a type of many thus encouraged to prey upon mankind; and + Charles V, one of the most powerful monarchs the world has known, + abdicating under fear of the comet of 1556, taking refuge in the monastery + of San Yuste, and giving up the best of his vast realms to such a + scribbling bigot as Philip II, furnishes an example even more + striking.(94) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (94) For Caesar, see Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, act ii, sc. 2. For +Galeazzo, see Guillemin, World of Comets, p. 19. For Charles V, see +Prof. Wolf's essay in the Monatschrift des wissenschaftlichen Vereins, +Zurich, 1857, p. 228. +</pre> + <p> + But for the retention of this belief there was a moral cause. Myriads of + good men in the Christian Church down to a recent period saw in the + appearance of comets not merely an exhibition of "signs in the heavens" + foretold in Scripture, but also Divine warnings of vast value to humanity + as incentives to repentance and improvement of life-warnings, indeed, so + precious that they could not be spared without danger to the moral + government of the world. And this belief in the portentous character of + comets as an essential part of the Divine government, being, as it was + thought, in full accord with Scripture, was made for centuries a source of + terror to humanity. To say nothing of examples in the earlier periods, + comets in the tenth century especially increased the distress of all + Europe. In the middle of the eleventh century a comet was thought to + accompany the death of Edward the Confessor and to presage the Norman + conquest; the traveller in France to-day may see this belief as it was + then wrought into the Bayeux tapestry.(95) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (95) For evidences of this widespread terror, see chronicles of +Raoul Glaber, Guillaume de Nangis, William of Malmesbury, Florence +of Worcester, Ordericus Vitalis, et al., passim, and the Anglo-Saxon +Chronicle (in the Rolls Series). For very thrilling pictures of this +horror in England, see Freeman, Norman Conquest, vol. iii, pp. 640-644, +and William Rufus, vol. ii, p. 118. For the Bayeau tapestry, see Bruce, +Bayeux Tapestry Elucidated, plate vii and p. 86; also Guillemin, World +of Comets, p. 24. There is a large photographic copy, in the South +Kensington Museum at London, of the original, wrought, as is generally +believed, by the wife of William the Conqueror and her ladies, and is +still preserved in the town museum at Bayeux. +</pre> + <p> + Nearly every decade of years throughout the Middle Ages saw Europe plunged + into alarm by appearances of this sort, but the culmination seems to have + been reached in 1456. At that time the Turks, after a long effort, had + made good their footing in Europe. A large statesmanship or generalship + might have kept them out; but, while different religious factions were + disputing over petty shades of dogma, they had advanced, had taken + Constantinople, and were evidently securing their foothold. Now came the + full bloom of this superstition. A comet appeared. The Pope of that + period, Calixtus III, though a man of more than ordinary ability, was + saturated with the ideas of his time. Alarmed at this monster, if we are + to believe the contemporary historian, this infallible head of the Church + solemnly "decreed several days of prayer for the averting of the wrath of + God, that whatever calamity impended might be turned from the Christians + and against the Turks." And, that all might join daily in this petition, + there was then established that midday Angelus which has ever since called + good Catholics to prayer against the powers of evil. Then, too, was + incorporated into a litany the plea, "From the Turk and the comet, good + Lord, deliver us." Never was papal intercession less effective; for the + Turk has held Constantinople from that day to this, while the obstinate + comet, being that now known under the name of Halley, has returned + imperturbably at short periods ever since.(96) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (96) The usual statement is, that Calixtus excommunicated the comet by +a bull, and this is accepted by Arago, Grant, Hoefer, Guillemin, Watson, +and many historians of astronomy. Hence the parallel is made on a noted +occasion by President Lincoln. No such bull, however, is to be found in +the published Bulleria, and that establishing the Angelus (as given by +Raynaldus in the Annales Eccl.) contains no mention of the comet. But +the authority of Platina (in his Vitae Pontificum, Venice, 1479, sub +Calistus III) who was not only in Rome at the time, but when he wrote +his history, archivist of the Vatican, is final as to the Pope's +attitude. Platina's authority was never questioned until modern science +changed the ideas of the world. The recent attempt of Pastor (in his +Geschichte der Papste) to pooh-pooh down the whole matter is too evident +an evasion to carry weight with those who know how even the most careful +histories have to be modified to suit the views of the censorship at +Rome. +</pre> + <p> + But the superstition went still further. It became more and more + incorporated into what was considered "scriptural science" and "sound + learning." The encyclopedic summaries, in which the science of the Middle + Ages and the Reformation period took form, furnish abundant proofs of + this. + </p> + <p> + Yet scientific observation was slowly undermining this structure. The + inspired prophecy of Seneca had not been forgotten. Even as far back as + the ninth century, in the midst of the sacred learning so abundant at the + court of Charlemagne and his successors, we find a scholar protesting + against the accepted doctrine. In the thirteenth century we have a mild + question by Albert the Great as to the supposed influence of comets upon + individuals; but the prevailing theological current was too strong, and he + finally yielded to it in this as in so many other things. + </p> + <p> + So, too, in the sixteenth century, we have Copernicus refusing to accept + the usual theory, Paracelsus writing to Zwingli against it, and Julius + Caesar Scaliger denouncing it as "ridiculous folly."(97) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (97) As to encyclopedic summaries, see Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum +Naturale, and the various editions of Reisch's Margarita Philosophica. +For Charlemagne's time, see Champion, La Fin du Monde, p. 156; Leopardi, +Errori Popolari, p. 165. As to Albert the Great's question, see Heller, +Geschichte der Physik, vol. i, p. 188. As to scepticism in the sixteenth +century, see Champion, La Fin du Monde, pp. 155, 156; and for Scaliger, +Dudith's book, cited below. +</pre> + <p> + At first this scepticism only aroused the horror of theologians and + increased the vigour of ecclesiastics; both asserted the theological + theory of comets all the more strenuously as based on scriptural truth. + During the sixteenth century France felt the influence of one of her + greatest men on the side of this superstition. Jean Bodin, so far before + his time in political theories, was only thoroughly abreast of it in + religious theories: the same reverence for the mere letter of Scripture + which made him so fatally powerful in supporting the witchcraft delusion, + led him to support this theological theory of comets—but with a + difference: he thought them the souls of men, wandering in space, bringing + famine, pestilence, and war. + </p> + <p> + Not less strong was the same superstition in England. Based upon mediaeval + theology, it outlived the revival of learning. From a multitude of + examples a few may be selected as typical. Early in the sixteenth century + Polydore Virgil, an ecclesiastic of the unreformed Church, alludes, in his + English History, to the presage of the death of the Emperor Constantine by + a comet as to a simple matter of fact; and in his work on prodigies he + pushes this superstition to its most extreme point, exhibiting comets as + preceding almost every form of calamity. + </p> + <p> + In 1532, just at the transition period from the old Church to the new, + Cranmer, paving the way to his archbishopric, writes from Germany to Henry + VIII, and says of the comet then visible: "What strange things these + tokens do signify to come hereafter, God knoweth; for they do not lightly + appear but against some great matter." + </p> + <p> + Twenty years later Bishop Latimer, in an Advent sermon, speaks of + eclipses, rings about the sun, and the like, as signs of the approaching + end of the world.(98) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (98) For Bodin, see Theatr., lib. ii, cited by Pingre, vol. i, p. 45; +also a vague citation in Baudrillart, Bodin et son Temps, p. 360. +For Polydore Virgil, see English History, p. 97 (in Camden Society +Publications). For Cranmer, see Remains, vol. ii, p. 535 (in Parker +Society Publications). For Latimer, see Sermons, second Sunday in +Advent, 1552. +</pre> + <p> + In 1580, under Queen Elizabeth, there was set forth an "order of prayer to + avert God's wrath from us, threatened by the late terrible earthquake, to + be used in all parish churches." In connection with this there was also + commended to the faithful "a godly admonition for the time present"; and + among the things referred to as evidence of God's wrath are comets, + eclipses, and falls of snow. + </p> + <p> + This view held sway in the Church of England during Elizabeth's whole + reign and far into the Stuart period: Strype, the ecclesiastical annalist, + gives ample evidence of this, and among the more curious examples is the + surmise that the comet of 1572 was a token of Divine wrath provoked by the + St. Bartholomew massacre. + </p> + <p> + As to the Stuart period, Archbishop Spottiswoode seems to have been active + in carrying the superstition from the sixteenth century to the + seventeenth, and Archbishop Bramhall cites Scripture in support of it. + Rather curiously, while the diary of Archbishop Laud shows so much + superstition regarding dreams as portents, it shows little or none + regarding comets; but Bishop Jeremy Taylor, strong as he was, evidently + favoured the usual view. John Howe, the eminent Nonconformist divine in + the latter part of the century, seems to have regarded the comet + superstition as almost a fundamental article of belief; he laments the + total neglect of comets and portents generally, declaring that this + neglect betokens want of reverence for the Ruler of the world; he + expresses contempt for scientific inquiry regarding comets, insists that + they may be natural bodies and yet supernatural portents, and ends by + saying, "I conceive it very safe to suppose that some very considerable + thing, either in the way of judgment or mercy, may ensue, according as the + cry of persevering wickedness or of penitential prayer is more or less + loud at that time."(99) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (99) For Liturgical Services of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, see Parker +Society Publications, pp. 569, 570. For Strype, see his Ecclesiastical +Memorials, vol. iii, part i, p. 472; also see his Annals of the +reformation, vol. ii, part ii, p. 151; and his Life of Sir Thomas Smith, +pp. 161, 162. For Spottiswoode, see History of the Church of Scotland +(Edinburgh reprint, 1851), vol. i, pp. 185, 186. For Bramhall, see his +Works, Oxford, 1844, vol. iv, pp. 60, 307, etc. For Jeremy Taylor, see +his Sermons on the Life of Christ. For John Howe, see his Works, London, +1862, vol. iv, pp. 140, 141. +</pre> + <p> + The Reformed Church of Scotland supported the superstition just as + strongly. John Knox saw in comets tokens of the wrath of Heaven; other + authorities considered them "a warning to the king to extirpate the + Papists"; and as late as 1680, after Halley had won his victory, comets + were announced on high authority in the Scottish Church to be "prodigies + of great judgment on these lands for our sins, for never was the Lord more + provoked by a people." + </p> + <p> + While such was the view of the clergy during the sixteenth and seventeenth + centuries, the laity generally accepted it as a matter of course, Among + the great leaders in literature there was at least general acquiescence in + it. Both Shakespeare and Milton recognise it, whether they fully accept it + or not. Shakespeare makes the Duke of Bedford, lamenting at the bier of + Henry V, say: + </p> + <p> + "Comets, importing change of time and states, Brandish your crystal + tresses in the sky; And with them scourge the bad revolting stars, That + have consented unto Henry's death." + </p> + <p> + Milton, speaking of Satan preparing for combat, says: + </p> + <p> + "On the other side, Incensed with indignation, Satan stood. Unterrified, + and like a comet burned, That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge In the + arctic sky, and from its horrid hair Shakes pestilence and war." + </p> + <p> + We do indeed find that in some minds the discoveries of Tycho Brahe and + Kepler begin to take effect, for, in 1621, Burton in his Anatomy of + Melancholy alludes to them as changing public opinion somewhat regarding + comets; and, just before the middle of the century, Sir Thomas Browne + expresses a doubt whether comets produce such terrible effects, "since it + is found that many of them are above the moon."(100) Yet even as late as + the last years of the seventeenth century we have English authors of much + power battling for this supposed scriptural view and among the natural and + typical results we find, in 1682, Ralph Thoresby, a Fellow of the Royal + Society, terrified at the comet of that year, and writing in his diary the + following passage: "Lord, fit us for whatever changes it may portend; for, + though I am not ignorant that such meteors proceed from natural causes, + yet are they frequently also the presages of imminent calamities." + Interesting is it to note here that this was Halley's comet, and that + Halley was at this very moment making those scientific studies upon it + which were to free the civilized world forever from such terrors as + distressed Thoresby. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (100) For John Knox, see his Histoire of the Reformation of Religion +within the Realm of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1732), lib. iv; also Chambers, +Domestic Annals of Scotland, vol. ii, pp 410-412. For Burton, see his +Anatomy of Melancholy, part ii, sect 2. For Browne, see the Vulgar and +Common Errors, book vi, chap. xiv. +</pre> + <p> + The belief in comets as warnings against sin was especially one of those + held "always, everywhere, and by all," and by Eastern Christians as well + as by Western. One of the most striking scenes in the history of the + Eastern Church is that which took place at the condemnation of Nikon, the + great Patriarch of Moscow. Turning toward his judges, he pointed to a + comet then blazing in the sky, and said, "God's besom shall sweep you all + away!" + </p> + <p> + Of all countries in western Europe, it was in Germany and German + Switzerland that this superstition took strongest hold. That same depth of + religious feeling which produced in those countries the most terrible + growth of witchcraft persecution, brought superstition to its highest + development regarding comets. No country suffered more from it in the + Middle Ages. At the Reformation Luther declared strongly in favour of it. + In one of his Advent sermons he said, "The heathen write that the comet + may arise from natural causes, but God creates not one that does not + foretoken a sure calamity." Again he said, "Whatever moves in the heaven + in an unusual way is certainly a sign of God's wrath." + </p> + <p> + And sometimes, yielding to another phase of his belief, he declared them + works of the devil, and declaimed against them as "harlot stars."(101) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (101) For Thoresby, see his Diary, (London, 1830). Halley's great +service is described further on in this chapter. For Nikon's speech, see +Dean Stanley's History of the Eastern Church, p. 485. For very striking +examples of this mediaeval terror in Germany, see Von Raumer, Geschichte +der Hohenstaufen, vol. vi, p. 538. For the Reformation period, see Wolf, +Gesch. d. Astronomie; also Praetorius, Ueber d. Cometstern (Erfurt, +1589), in which the above sentences of Luther are printed on the title +page as epigraphs. For "Huren-Sternen," see the sermon of Celichius, +described later. +</pre> + <p> + Melanchthon, too, in various letters refers to comets as heralds of + Heaven's wrath, classing them, with evil conjunctions of the planets and + abortive births, among the "signs" referred to in Scripture. Zwingli, + boldest of the greater Reformers in shaking off traditional beliefs, could + not shake off this, and insisted that the comet of 1531 betokened + calamity. Arietus, a leading Protestant theologian, declared, "The heavens + are given us not merely for our pleasure, but also as a warning of the + wrath of God for the correction of our lives." Lavater insisted that + comets are signs of death or calamity, and cited proofs from Scripture. + </p> + <p> + Catholic and Protestant strove together for the glory of this doctrine. It + was maintained with especial vigour by Fromundus, the eminent professor + and Doctor of Theology at the Catholic University of Louvain, who so + strongly opposed the Copernican system; at the beginning of the + seventeenth century, even so gifted an astronomer as Kepler yielded + somewhat to the belief; and near the end of that century Voigt declared + that the comet of 1618 clearly presaged the downfall of the Turkish + Empire, and he stigmatized as "atheists and Epicureans" all who did not + believe comets to be God's warnings.(102) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (102) For Melanchthon, see Wolf, ubi supra. For Zwingli, see Wolf, p. +235. For Arietus, see Madler, Geschichte der Himmelskunde, vol. ii. For +Kepler's superstition, see Wolf, p. 281. For Voight, see Himmels-Manaten +Reichstage, Hamburg, 1676. For both Fromundus and Voigt, see also +Madler, vol. ii, p. 399, and Lecky, Rationalism in Europe, vol. i, p.28. +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <br /><a name="linkcrush" id="linkcrush"></a> <br /> + </p> + <h2> + II. THEOLOGICAL EFFORTS TO CRUSH THE SCIENTIFIC VIEW. + </h2> + <p> + Out of this belief was developed a great series of efforts to maintain the + theological view of comets, and to put down forever the scientific view. + These efforts may be divided into two classes: those directed toward + learned men and scholars, through the universities, and those directed + toward the people at large, through the pulpits. As to the first of these, + that learned men and scholars might be kept in the paths of "sacred + science" and "sound learning," especial pains was taken to keep all + knowledge of the scientific view of comets as far as possible from + students in the universities. Even to the end of the seventeenth century + the oath generally required of professors of astronomy over a large part + of Europe prevented their teaching that comets are heavenly bodies + obedient to law. Efforts just as earnest were made to fasten into + students' minds the theological theory. Two or three examples out of many + may serve as types. First of these may be named the teaching of Jacob + Heerbrand, professor at the University of Tubingen, who in 1577 + illustrated the moral value of comets by comparing the Almighty sending a + comet, to the judge laying the executioner's sword on the table between + himself and the criminal in a court of justice; and, again, to the father + or schoolmaster displaying the rod before naughty children. A little later + we have another churchman of great importance in that region, Schickhart, + head pastor and superintendent at Goppingen, preaching and publishing a + comet sermon, in which he denounces those who stare at such warnings of + God without heeding them, and compares them to "calves gaping at a new + barn door." Still later, at the end of the seventeenth century, we find + Conrad Dieterich, director of studies at the University of Marburg, + denouncing all scientific investigation of comets as impious, and + insisting that they are only to be regarded as "signs and wonders."(103) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (103) For the effect of the anti-Pythagorean oath, see Prowe, +Copernicus; also Madler and Wolf. For Heerbrand, see his Von dem +erschrockenlichen Wunderzeichen, Tubingen, 1577. For Schickart, see +his Predigt vom Wunderzeichen, Stuttgart, 1621. For Deiterich, see his +sermon, described more fully below. +</pre> + <p> + The results of this ecclesiastical pressure upon science in the + universities were painfully shown during generation after generation, as + regards both professors and students; and examples may be given typical of + its effects upon each of these two classes. + </p> + <p> + The first of these is the case of Michael Maestlin. He was by birth a + Swabian Protestant, was educated at Tubingen as a pupil of Apian, and, + after a period of travel, was settled as deacon in the little parish of + Backnang, when the comet of 1577 gave him an occasion to apply his + astronomical studies. His minute and accurate observation of it is to this + day one of the wonders of science. It seems almost impossible that so much + could be accomplished by the naked eye. His observations agreed with those + of Tycho Brahe, and won for Maestlin the professorship of astronomy in the + University of Heidelberg. No man had so clearly proved the supralunar + position of a comet, or shown so conclusively that its motion was not + erratic, but regular. The young astronomer, though Apian's pupil, was an + avowed Copernican and the destined master and friend of Kepler. Yet, in + the treatise embodying his observations, he felt it necessary to save his + reputation for orthodoxy by calling the comet a "new and horrible + prodigy," and by giving a chapter of "conjectures on the signification of + the present comet," in which he proves from history that this variety of + comet betokens peace, but peace purchased by a bloody victory. That he + really believed in this theological theory seems impossible; the very fact + that his observations had settled the supralunar character and regular + motion of comets proves this. It was a humiliation only to be compared to + that of Osiander when he wrote his grovelling preface to the great book of + Copernicus. Maestlin had his reward: when, a few years, later his old + teacher, Apian, was driven from his chair at Tubingen for refusing to sign + the Lutheran Concord-Book, Maestlin was elected to his place. + </p> + <p> + Not less striking was the effect of this theological pressure upon the + minds of students. Noteworthy as an example of this is the book of the + Leipsic lawyer, Buttner. From no less than eighty-six biblical texts he + proves the Almighty's purpose of using the heavenly bodies for the + instruction of men as to future events, and then proceeds to frame + exhaustive tables, from which, the time and place of the comet's first + appearance being known, its signification can be deduced. This manual he + gave forth as a triumph of religious science, under the name of the Comet + Hour-Book.(104) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (104) For Maestlin, see his Observatio et Demonstration Cometae, +Tubingen, 1578. For Buttner, see his Cometen Stundbuchlein, Leipsic, +1605. +</pre> + <p> + The same devotion to the portent theory is found in the universities of + Protestant Holland. Striking is it to see in the sixteenth century, after + Tycho Brahe's discovery, the Dutch theologian, Gerard Vossius, Professor + of Theology and Eloquence at Leyden, lending his great weight to the + superstition. "The history of all times," he says, "shows comets to be the + messengers of misfortune. It does not follow that they are endowed with + intelligence, but that there is a deity who makes use of them to call the + human race to repentance." Though familiar with the works of Tycho Brahe, + he finds it "hard to believe" that all comets are ethereal, and adduces + several historical examples of sublunary ones. + </p> + <p> + Nor was this attempt to hold back university teaching to the old view of + comets confined to Protestants. The Roman Church was, if possible, more + strenuous in the same effort. A few examples will serve as types, + representing the orthodox teaching at the great centres of Catholic + theology. + </p> + <p> + One of these is seen in Spain. The eminent jurist Torreblanca was + recognised as a controlling authority in all the universities of Spain, + and from these he swayed in the seventeenth century the thought of + Catholic Europe, especially as to witchcraft and the occult powers in + Nature. He lays down the old cometary superstition as one of the + foundations of orthodox teaching: Begging the question, after the fashion + of his time, he argues that comets can not be stars, because new stars + always betoken good, while comets betoken evil. + </p> + <p> + The same teaching was given in the Catholic universities of the + Netherlands. Fromundus, at Louvain, the enemy of Galileo, steadily + continued his crusade against all cometary heresy.(105) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (105) For Vossius, see the De Idololatria (in his Opera, vol. v, pp. +283-285). For Torreblanc, see his De Magia, Seville, 1618, and often +reprinted. For Fromundus, see his Meteorologica. +</pre> + <p> + But a still more striking case is seen in Italy. The reverend Father + Augustin de Angelis, rector of the Clementine College at Rome, as late as + 1673, after the new cometary theory had been placed beyond reasonable + doubt, and even while Newton was working out its final demonstration, + published a third edition of his Lectures on Meteorology. It was dedicated + to the Cardinal of Hesse, and bore the express sanction of the Master of + the Sacred Palace at Rome and of the head of the religious order to which + De Angelis belonged. This work deserves careful analysis, not only as + representing the highest and most approved university teaching of the time + at the centre of Roman Catholic Christendom, but still more because it + represents that attempt to make a compromise between theology and science, + or rather the attempt to confiscate science to the uses of theology, which + we so constantly find whenever the triumph of science in any field has + become inevitable. + </p> + <p> + As to the scientific element in this compromise, De Angelis holds, in his + general introduction regarding meteorology, that the main material cause + of comets is "exhalation," and says, "If this exhalation is thick and + sticky, it blazes into a comet." And again he returns to the same view, + saying that "one form of exhalation is dense, hence easily inflammable and + long retentive of fire, from which sort are especially generated comets." + But it is in his third lecture that he takes up comets specially, and his + discussion of them is extended through the fourth, fifth, and sixth + lectures. Having given in detail the opinions of various theologians and + philosophers, he declares his own in the form of two conclusions. The + first of these is that "comets are not heavenly bodies, but originate in + the earth's atmosphere below the moon; for everything heavenly is eternal + and incorruptible, but comets have a beginning and ending—ergo, + comets can not be heavenly bodies." This, we may observe, is levelled at + the observations and reasonings of Tycho Brahe and Kepler, and is a very + good illustration of the scholastic and mediaeval method—the method + which blots out an ascertained fact by means of a metaphysical formula. + His second conclusion is that "comets are of elemental and sublunary + nature; for they are an exhalation hot and dry, fatty and well condensed, + inflammable and kindled in the uppermost regions of the air." He then goes + on to answer sundry objections to this mixture of metaphysics and science, + and among other things declares that "the fatty, sticky material of a + comet may be kindled from sparks falling from fiery heavenly bodies or + from a thunderbolt"; and, again, that the thick, fatty, sticky quality of + the comet holds its tail in shape, and that, so far are comets from having + their paths beyond the moon's orbit, as Tycho Brahe and Kepler thought, he + himself in 1618 saw "a bearded comet so near the summit of Vesuvius that + it almost seemed to touch it." As to sorts and qualities of comets, he + accepts Aristotle's view, and divides them into bearded and tailed.(106) + He goes on into long disquisitions upon their colours, forms, and motions. + Under this latter head he again plunges deep into a sea of metaphysical + considerations, and does not reappear until he brings up his compromise in + the opinion that their movement is as yet uncertain and not understood, + but that, if we must account definitely for it, we must say that it is + effected by angels especially assigned to this service by Divine + Providence. But, while proposing this compromise between science and + theology as to the origin and movement of comets, he will hear to none as + regards their mission as "signs and wonders" and presages of evil. He + draws up a careful table of these evils, arranging them in the following + order: Drought, wind, earthquake, tempest, famine, pestilence, war, and, + to clinch the matter, declares that the comet observed by him in 1618 + brought not only war, famine, pestilence, and earthquake, but also a + general volcanic eruption, "which would have destroyed Naples, had not the + blood of the invincible martyr Januarius withstood it." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (106) Barbata et caudata. +</pre> + <p> + It will be observed, even from this sketch, that, while the learned Father + Augustin thus comes infallibly to the mediaeval conclusion, he does so + very largely by scientific and essentially modern processes, giving + unwonted prominence to observation, and at times twisting scientific + observation into the strand with his metaphysics. The observations and + methods of his science are sometimes shrewd, sometimes comical. Good + examples of the latter sort are such as his observing that the comet stood + very near the summit of Vesuvius, and his reasoning that its tail was kept + in place by its stickiness. But observations and reasonings of this sort + are always the first homage paid by theology to science as the end of + their struggle approaches.(107) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (107) See De Angelis, Lectiones Meteorologicae, Rome, 1669. +</pre> + <p> + Equally striking is an example seen a little later in another part of + Europe; and it is the more noteworthy because Halley and Newton had + already fully established the modern scientific theory. Just at the close + of the seventeenth century the Jesuit Reinzer, professor at Linz, put + forth his Meteorologia Philosophico-Politica, in which all natural + phenomena received both a physical and a moral interpretation. It was + profusely and elaborately illustrated, and on account of its instructive + contents was in 1712 translated into German for the unlearned reader. The + comet receives, of course, great attention. "It appears," says Reinzer, + "only then in the heavens when the latter punish the earth, and through it + (the comet) not only predict but bring to pass all sorts of calamity.... + And, to that end, its tail serves for a rod, its hair for weapons and + arrows, its light for a threat, and its heat for a sign of anger and + vengeance." Its warnings are threefold: (1) "Comets, generated in the air, + betoken NATURALLY drought, wind, earthquake, famine, and pestilence." (2) + "Comets can indirectly, in view of their material, betoken wars, tumults, + and the death of princes; for, being hot and dry, they bring the + moistnesses (Feuchtigkeiten) in the human body to an extraordinary heat + and dryness, increasing the gall; and, since the emotions depend on the + temperament and condition of the body, men are through this change driven + to violent deeds, quarrels, disputes, and finally to arms: especially is + this the result with princes, who are more delicate and also more arrogant + than other men, and whose moistnesses are more liable to inflammation of + this sort, inasmuch as they live in luxury and seldom restrain themselves + from those things which in such a dry state of the heavens are especially + injurious." (3) "All comets, whatever prophetic significance they may have + naturally in and of themselves, are yet principally, according to the + Divine pleasure, heralds of the death of great princes, of war, and of + other such great calamities; and this is known and proved, first of all, + from the words of Christ himself: 'Nation shall rise against nation, and + kingdom against kingdom; and great earthquakes shall be in divers places, + and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall + there be from heaven.'"(108) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (108) See Reinzer, Meteorologica Philosophico-Politica (edition of +Augsburg, 1712), pp. 101-103. +</pre> + <p> + While such pains was taken to keep the more highly educated classes in the + "paths of scriptural science and sound learning;" at the universities, + equal efforts were made to preserve the cometary orthodoxy of the people + at large by means of the pulpits. Out of the mass of sermons for this + purpose which were widely circulated I will select just two as typical, + and they are worthy of careful study as showing some special dangers of + applying theological methods to scientific facts. In the second half of + the sixteenth century the recognised capital of orthodox Lutheranism was + Magdeburg, and in the region tributary to this metropolis no Church + official held a more prominent station than the "Superintendent," or + Lutheran bishop, of the neighbouring Altmark. It was this dignitary, + Andreas Celichius by name, who at Magdeburg, in 1578, gave to the press + his Theological Reminder of the New Comet. After deprecating as + blasphemous the attempt of Aristotle to explain the phenomenon otherwise + than as a supernatural warning from God to sinful man, he assures his + hearers that "whoever would know the comet's real source and nature must + not merely gape and stare at the scientific theory that it is an earthy, + greasy, tough, and sticky vapour and mist, rising into the upper air and + set ablaze by the celestial heat." Far more important for them is it to + know what this vapour is. It is really, in the opinion of Celichius, + nothing more or less than "the thick smoke of human sins, rising every + day, every hour, every moment, full of stench and horror, before the face + of God, and becoming gradually so thick as to form a comet, with curled + and plaited tresses, which at last is kindled by the hot and fiery anger + of the Supreme Heavenly Judge." He adds that it is probably only through + the prayers and tears of Christ that this blazing monument of human + depravity becomes visible to mortals. In support of this theory, he urges + the "coming up before God" of the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah and of + Nineveh, and especially the words of the prophet regarding Babylon, "Her + stench and rottenness is come up before me." That the anger of God can + produce the conflagration without any intervention of Nature is proved + from the Psalms, "He sendeth out his word and melteth them." From the + position of the comet, its course, and the direction of its tail he augurs + especially the near approach of the judgment day, though it may also + betoken, as usual, famine, pestilence, and war. "Yet even in these days," + he mourns, "there are people reckless and giddy enough to pay no heed to + such celestial warnings, and these even cite in their own defence the + injunction of Jeremiah not to fear signs in the heavens." This idea he + explodes, and shows that good and orthodox Christians, while not + superstitious like the heathen, know well "that God is not bound to his + creation and the ordinary course of Nature, but must often, especially in + these last dregs of the world, resort to irregular means to display his + anger at human guilt."(109) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (109) For Celichius, or Celich, see his own treatise, as above. +</pre> + <p> + The other typical case occurred in the following century and in another + part of Germany. Conrad Dieterich was, during the first half of the + seventeenth century, a Lutheran ecclesiastic of the highest authority. His + ability as a theologian had made him Archdeacon of Marburg, Professor of + Philosophy and Director of Studies at the University of Giessen, and + "Superintendent," or Lutheran bishop, in southwestern Germany. In the year + 1620, on the second Sunday in Advent, in the great Cathedral of Ulm, he + developed the orthodox doctrine of comets in a sermon, taking up the + questions: 1. What are comets? 2. What do they indicate? 3. What have we + to do with their significance? This sermon marks an epoch. Delivered in + that stronghold of German Protestantism and by a prelate of the highest + standing, it was immediately printed, prefaced by three laudatory poems + from different men of note, and sent forth to drive back the scientific, + or, as it was called, the "godless," view of comets. The preface shows + that Dieterich was sincerely alarmed by the tendency to regard comets as + natural appearances. His text was taken from the twenty-fifth verse of the + twenty-first chapter of St. Luke: "And there shall be signs in the sun, + and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, + with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring." As to what comets are, he + cites a multitude of philosophers, and, finding that they differ among + themselves, he uses a form of argument not uncommon from that day to this, + declaring that this difference of opinion proves that there is no solution + of the problem save in revelation, and insisting that comets are "signs + especially sent by the Almighty to warn the earth." An additional proof of + this he finds in the forms of comets. One, he says, took the form of a + trumpet; another, of a spear; another of a goat; another, of a torch; + another, of a sword; another, of an arrow; another, of a sabre; still + another, of a bare arm. From these forms of comets he infers that we may + divine their purpose. As to their creation, he quotes John of Damascus and + other early Church authorities in behalf of the idea that each comet is a + star newly created at the Divine command, out of nothing, and that it + indicates the wrath of God. As to their purpose, having quoted largely + from the Bible and from Luther, he winds up by insisting that, as God can + make nothing in vain, comets must have some distinct object; then, from + Isaiah and Joel among the prophets, from Matthew, Mark, and Luke among the + evangelists, from Origen and John Chrysostom among the fathers, from + Luther and Melanchthon among the Reformers, he draws various texts more or + less conclusive to prove that comets indicate evil and only evil; and he + cites Luther's Advent sermon to the effect that, though comets may arise + in the course of Nature, they are still signs of evil to mankind. In + answer to the theory of sundry naturalists that comets are made up of "a + certain fiery, warm, sulphurous, saltpetery, sticky fog," he declaims: + "Our sins, our sins: they are the fiery heated vapours, the thick, sticky, + sulphurous clouds which rise from the earth toward heaven before God." + Throughout the sermon Dieterich pours contempt over all men who simply + investigate comets as natural objects, calls special attention to a comet + then in the heavens resembling a long broom or bundle of rods, and + declares that he and his hearers can only consider it rightly "when we see + standing before us our Lord God in heaven as an angry father with a rod + for his children." In answer to the question what comets signify, he + commits himself entirely to the idea that they indicate the wrath of God, + and therefore calamities of every sort. Page after page is filled with the + records of evils following comets. Beginning with the creation of the + world, he insists that the first comet brought on the deluge of Noah, and + cites a mass of authorities, ranging from Moses and Isaiah to Albert the + Great and Melanchthon, in support of the view that comets precede + earthquakes, famines, wars, pestilences, and every form of evil. He makes + some parade of astronomical knowledge as to the greatness of the sun and + moon, but relapses soon into his old line of argument. Imploring his + audience not to be led away from the well-established belief of + Christendom and the principles of their fathers, he comes back to his old + assertion, insists that "our sins are the inflammable material of which + comets are made," and winds up with a most earnest appeal to the Almighty + to spare his people.(110) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (110) For Deiterich, see Ulmische Cometen-Predigt, von dem Cometen, so +nechst abgewischen 1618 Jahrs im Wintermonat erstenmahls in Schwaben +sehen lassen,... gehalten zu Ulm... durch Conrad Dieterich, Ulm, 1620. +For a life of the author, see article Dieterich in the Allgemeine +Deutsche Biographie. See also Wolf. +</pre> + <p> + Similar efforts from the pulpit were provoked by the great comet of 1680. + Typical among these was the effort in Switzerland of Pastor Heinrich Erni, + who, from the Cathedral of Zurich, sent a circular letter to the clergy of + that region showing the connection of the eleventh and twelfth verses of + the first chapter of Jeremiah with the comet, giving notice that at his + suggestion the authorities had proclaimed a solemn fast, and exhorting the + clergy to preach earnestly on the subject of this warning. + </p> + <p> + Nor were the interpreters of the comet's message content with simple + prose. At the appearance of the comet of 1618, Grasser and Gross, pastors + and doctors of theology at Basle, put forth a collection of doggerel + rhymes to fasten the orthodox theory into the minds of school-children and + peasants. One of these may be translated: + </p> + <p> + "I am a Rod in God's right hand threatening the German and foreign land." + </p> + <p> + Others for a similar purpose taught: + </p> + <p> + "Eight things there be a Comet brings, When it on high doth horrid range: + Wind, Famine, Plague, and Death to Kings, War, Earthquakes, Floods, and + Direful Change." + </p> + <p> + Great ingenuity was shown in meeting the advance of science, in the + universities and schools, with new texts of Scripture; and Stephen + Spleiss, Rector of the Gymnasium at Schaffhausen, got great credit by + teaching that in the vision of Jeremiah the "almond rod" was a tailed + comet, and the "seething pot" a bearded one.(111) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (111) For Erni, see Wolf, Gesch. d. Astronomie, p. 239. For Grassner and +Gross, see their Christenliches Bedenken... von dem erschrockenlichen +Cometen, etc., Zurich, 1664. For Spleiss, see Beilauftiger Bericht von +dem jetzigen Cometsternen, etc., schaffhausen, 1664. +</pre> + <p> + It can be easily understood that such authoritative utterances as that of + Dieterich must have produced a great effect throughout Protestant + Christendom; and in due time we see their working in New England. That + same tendency to provincialism, which, save at rare intervals, has been + the bane of Massachusetts thought from that day to this, appeared; and in + 1664 we find Samuel Danforth arguing from the Bible that "comets are + portentous signals of great and notable changes," and arguing from history + that they "have been many times heralds of wrath to a secure and + impenitent world." He cites especially the comet of 1652, which appeared + just before Mr. Cotton's sickness and disappeared after his death. Morton + also, in his Memorial recording the death of John Putnam, alludes to the + comet of 1662 as "a very signal testimony that God had then removed a + bright star and a shining light out of the heaven of his Church here into + celestial glory above." Again he speaks of another comet, insisting that + "it was no fiery meteor caused by exhalation, but it was sent immediately + by God to awaken the secure world," and goes on to show how in that year + "it pleased God to smite the fruits of the earth—namely, the wheat + in special—with blasting and mildew, whereby much of it was spoiled + and became profitable for nothing, and much of it worth little, being + light and empty. This was looked upon by the judicious and conscientious + of the land as a speaking providence against the unthankfulness of + many,... as also against voluptuousness and abuse of the good creatures of + God by licentiousness in drinking and fashions in apparel, for the + obtaining whereof a great part of the principal grain was oftentimes + unnecessarily expended." + </p> + <p> + But in 1680 a stronger than either of these seized upon the doctrine and + wielded it with power. Increase Mather, so open always to ideas from + Europe, and always so powerful for good or evil in the cloonies, preached + his sermon on "Heaven's Alarm to the World,... wherein is shown that + fearful sights and signs in the heavens are the presages of great + calamities at hand." The texts were taken from the book of Revelation: + "And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, + burning, as it were a lamp," and "Behold, the third woe cometh quickly." + In this, as in various other sermons, he supports the theological cometary + theory fully. He insists that "we are fallen into the dregs of time," and + that the day of judgment is evidently approaching. He explains away the + words of Jeremiah—"Be not dismayed at signs in the heavens"—and + shows that comets have been forerunners of nearly every form of evil. + Having done full justice to evils thus presaged in scriptural times, he + begins a similar display in modern history by citing blazing stars which + foretold the invasions of Goths, Huns, Saracens, and Turks, and warns + gainsayers by citing the example of Vespasian, who, after ridiculing a + comet, soon died. The general shape and appearance of comets, he thinks, + betoken their purpose, and he cites Tertullian to prove them "God's sharp + razors on mankind, whereby he doth poll, and his scythe whereby he doth + shear down multitudes of sinful creatures." At last, rising to a fearful + height, he declares: "For the Lord hath fired his beacon in the heavens + among the stars of God there; the fearful sight is not yet out of sight. + The warning piece of heaven is going off. Now, then, if the Lord discharge + his murdering pieces from on high, and men be found in their sins unfit + for death, their blood shall be upon them." And again, in an agony of + supplication, he cries out: "Do we see the sword blazing over us? Let it + put us upon crying to God, that the judgment be diverted and not return + upon us again so speedily.... Doth God threaten our very heavens? O pray + unto him, that he would not take away stars and send comets to succeed + them."(112) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (112) For Danforth, see his Astronomical Descritption of the Late Comet +or Blazing Star, Together with a Brief Theological Application Thereof, +1664. For Morton, see his Memorial, pp. 251, 252,; also 309, 310. Texts +cited by Mather were Rev., viii, 10, and xi, 14. +</pre> + <p> + Two years later, in August, 1682, he followed this with another sermon on + "The Latter Sign," "wherein is showed that the voice of God in signal + providences, especially when repeated and iterated, ought to be hearkened + unto." Here, too, of course, the comet comes in for a large share of + attention. But his tone is less sure: even in the midst of all his + arguments appears an evident misgiving. The thoughts of Newton in science + and Bayle in philosophy were evidently tending to accomplish the prophecy + of Seneca. Mather's alarm at this is clear. His natural tendency is to + uphold the idea that a comet is simply a fire-ball flung from the hand of + an avenging God at a guilty world, but he evidently feels obliged to yield + something to the scientific spirit; hence, in the Discourse concerning + Comets, published in 1683, he declares: "There are those who think that, + inasmuch as comets may be supposed to proceed from natural causes, there + is no speaking voice of Heaven in them beyond what is to be said of all + other works of God. But certain it is that many things which may happen + according to the course of Nature are portentous signs of Divine anger and + prognostics of great evils hastening upon the world." He then notices the + eclipse of August, 1672, and adds: "That year the college was eclipsed by + the death of the learned president there, worthy Mr. Chauncey and two + colonies—namely, Massachusetts and Plymouth—by the death of + two governors, who died within a twelvemonth after.... Shall, then, such + mighty works of God as comets are be insignificant things?"(113) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (113) Increase Mather's Heaven's Alarm to the World was first printed +at Boston in 1681, but was reprinted in 1682, and was appended, with the +sermon on The Latter Sign, to the Discourse on Comets (Boston, 1683). +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0022" id="link2H_4_0022"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III. THE INVASION OF SCEPTICISM. + </h2> + <p> + Vigorous as Mather's argument is, we see scepticism regarding "signs" + continuing to invade the public mind; and, in spite of his threatenings, + about twenty years after we find a remarkable evidence of this progress in + the fact that this scepticism has seized upon no less a personage than + that colossus of orthodoxy, his thrice illustrious son, Cotton Mather + himself; and him we find, in 1726, despite the arguments of his father, + declaring in his Manuductio: "Perhaps there may be some need for me to + caution you against being dismayed at the signs of the heavens, or having + any superstitious fancies upon eclipses and the like.... I am willing that + you be apprehensive of nothing portentous in blazing stars. For my part, I + know not whether all our worlds, and even the sun itself, may not fare the + better for them."(114) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (114) For Cotton Mather, see the Manuductio, pp. 54, 55. +</pre> + <p> + Curiously enough, for this scientific scepticism in Cotton Mather there + was a cause identical with that which had developed superstition in the + mind of his father. The same provincial tendency to receive implicitly any + new European fashion in thinking or speech wrought upon both, plunging one + into superstition and drawing the other out of it. + </p> + <p> + European thought, which New England followed, had at last broken away in + great measure from the theological view of comets as signs and wonders. + The germ of this emancipating influence was mainly in the great utterance + of Seneca; and we find in nearly every century some evidence that this + germ was still alive. This life became more and more evident after the + Reformation period, even though theologians in every Church did their best + to destroy it. The first series of attacks on the old theological doctrine + were mainly founded in philosophic reasoning. As early as the first half + of the sixteenth century we hear Julius Caesar Scaliger protesting against + the cometary superstition as "ridiculous folly."(115) Of more real + importance was the treatise of Blaise de Vigenere, published at Paris in + 1578. In this little book various statements regarding comets as signs of + wrath or causes of evils are given, and then followed by a very gentle and + quiet discussion, usually tending to develop that healthful scepticism + which is the parent of investigation. A fair example of his mode of + treating the subject is seen in his dealing with a bit of "sacred + science." This was simply that "comets menace princes and kings with death + because they live more delicately than other people; and, therefore, the + air thickened and corrupted by a comet would be naturally more injurious + to them than to common folk who live on coarser food." To this De Vigenere + answers that there are very many persons who live on food as delicate as + that enjoyed by princes and kings, and yet receive no harm from comets. He + then goes on to show that many of the greatest monarchs in history have + met death without any comet to herald it. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (115) For Scaliger, see p. 20 of Dudith's book, cited below. +</pre> + <p> + In the same year thoughtful scepticism of a similar sort found an advocate + in another part of Europe. Thomas Erastus, the learned and devout + professor of medicine at Heidelberg, put forth a letter dealing in the + plainest terms with the superstition. He argued especially that there + could be no natural connection between the comet and pestilence, since the + burning of an exhalation must tend to purify rather than to infect the + air. In the following year the eloquent Hungarian divine Dudith published + a letter in which the theological theory was handled even more shrewdly, + for he argued that, if comets were caused by the sins of mortals, they + would never be absent from the sky. But these utterances were for the time + brushed aside by the theological leaders of thought as shallow or impious. + </p> + <p> + In the seventeenth century able arguments against the superstition, on + general grounds, began to be multiplied. In Holland, Balthasar Bekker + opposed this, as he opposed the witchcraft delusion, on general + philosophic grounds; and Lubienitzky wrote in a compromising spirit to + prove that comets were as often followed by good as by evil events. In + France, Pierre Petit, formerly geographer of Louis XIII, and an intimate + friend of Descartes, addressed to the young Louis XIV a vehement protest + against the superstition, basing his arguments not on astronomy, but on + common sense. A very effective part of the little treatise was devoted to + answering the authority of the fathers of the early Church. To do this, he + simply reminded his readers that St. Augustine and St. John Damascenus had + also opposed the doctrine of the antipodes. The book did good service in + France, and was translated in Germany a few years later.(116) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (116) For Blaise de Vigenere, see his Traite des Cometes, Paris, 1578. +For Dudith, see his De Cometarum Dignificatione, Basle, 1579, to which +the letter of Erastus is appended. Bekker's views may be found in +his Onderzoek van de Betekening der Cometen, Leeuwarden, 1683. For +Lubienitsky's, see his Theatrum Cometicum, Amsterdam, 1667, in part +ii: Historia Cometarum, preface "to the reader." For Petit, see his +Dissertation sur la Nature des Cometes, Paris, 1665 (German translation, +Dresden and Zittau, 1681). +</pre> + <p> + All these were denounced as infidels and heretics, yet none the less did + they set men at thinking, and prepare the way for a far greater genius; + for toward the end of the same century the philosophic attack was taken up + by Pierre Bayle, and in the whole series of philosophic champions he is + chief. While professor at the University of Sedan he had observed the + alarm caused by the comet of 1680, and he now brought all his reasoning + powers to bear upon it. Thoughts deep and witty he poured out in volume + after volume. Catholics and Protestants were alike scandalized. Catholic + France spurned him, and Jurieu, the great Reformed divine, called his + cometary views "atheism," and tried hard to have Protestant Holland + condemn him. Though Bayle did not touch immediately the mass of mankind, + he wrought with power upon men who gave themselves the trouble of + thinking. It was indeed unfortunate for the Church that theologians, + instead of taking the initiative in this matter, left it to Bayle; for, in + tearing down the pretended scriptural doctrine of comets, he tore down + much else: of all men in his time, no one so thoroughly prepared the way + for Voltaire. + </p> + <p> + Bayle's whole argument is rooted in the prophecy of Seneca. He declares: + "Comets are bodies subject to the ordinary law of Nature, and not + prodigies amenable to no law." He shows historically that there is no + reason to regard comets as portents of earthly evils. As to the fact that + such evils occur after the passage of comets across the sky, he compares + the person believing that comets cause these evils to a woman looking out + of a window into a Paris street and believing that the carriages pass + because she looks out. As to the accomplishment of some predictions, he + cites the shrewd saying of Henry IV, to the effect that "the public will + remember one prediction that comes true better than all the rest that have + proved false." Finally, he sums up by saying: "The more we study man, the + more does it appear that pride is his ruling passion, and that he affects + grandeur even in his misery. Mean and perishable creature that he is, he + has been able to persuade men that he can not die without disturbing the + whole course of Nature and obliging the heavens to put themselves to fresh + expense. In order to light his funeral pomp. Foolish and ridiculous + vanity! If we had a just idea of the universe, we should soon comprehend + that the death or birth of a prince is too insignificant a matter to stir + the heavens."(117) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (117) Regarding Bayle, see Madler, Himmelskunde, vol. i, p. 327. +For special points of interest in Bayle's arguments, see his Pensees +Diverses sur les Cometes, Amsterdam, 1749, pp. 79, 102, 134, 206. For +the response to Jurieu, see the continuation des Pensees, Rotterdam, +1705; also Champion, p. 164, Lecky, ubi supra, and Guillemin, pp. 29, +30. +</pre> + <p> + This great philosophic champion of right reason was followed by a literary + champion hardly less famous; for Fontenelle now gave to the French theatre + his play of The Comet, and a point of capital importance in France was + made by rendering the army of ignorance ridiculous.(118) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (118) See Fontenelle, cited by Champion, p. 167. +</pre> + <p> + Such was the line of philosophic and literary attack, as developed from + Scaliger to Fontenelle. But beneath and in the midst of all of it, from + first to last, giving firmness, strength, and new sources of vitality to + it, was the steady development of scientific effort; and to the series of + great men who patiently wrought and thought out the truth by scientific + methods through all these centuries belong the honours of the victory. + </p> + <p> + For generations men in various parts of the world had been making careful + observations on these strange bodies. As far back as the time when Luther + and Melanchthon and Zwingli were plunged into alarm by various comets from + 1531 to 1539, Peter Apian kept his head sufficiently cool to make + scientific notes of their paths through the heavens. A little later, when + the great comet of 1556 scared popes, emperors, and reformers alike, such + men as Fabricius at Vienna and Heller at Nuremberg quietly observed its + path. In vain did men like Dieterich and Heerbrand and Celich from various + parts of Germany denounce such observations and investigations as impious; + they were steadily continued, and in 1577 came the first which led to the + distinct foundation of the modern doctrine. In that year appeared a comet + which again plunged Europe into alarm. In every European country this + alarm was strong, but in Germany strongest of all. The churches were + filled with terror-stricken multitudes. Celich preaching at Magdeburg was + echoed by Heerbrand preaching at Tubingen, and both these from thousands + of other pulpits, Catholic and Protestant, throughout Europe. In the midst + of all this din and outcry a few men quietly but steadily observed the + monster; and Tycho Brahe announced, as the result, that its path lay + farther from the earth than the orbit of the moon. Another great + astronomical genius, Kepler, confirmed this. This distinct beginning of + the new doctrine was bitterly opposed by theologians; they denounced it as + one of the evil results of that scientific meddling with the designs of + Providence against which they had so long declaimed in pulpits and + professors' chairs; they even brought forward some astronomers ambitious + or wrong-headed enough to testify that Tycho and Kepler were in + error.(119) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (119) See Madler, Himmelskunde, vol. i, pp. 181, 197; also Wolf, Gesch. +d. Astronomie, and Janssen, Gesch. d. deutschen Volkes, vol. v, p. 350. +Heerbrand's sermon, cited above, is a good specimen of the theologic +attitude. See Pingre, vol. ii, p. 81. +</pre> + <p> + Nothing could be more natural than such opposition; for this simple + announcement by Tycho Brahe began a new era. It shook the very foundation + of cometary superstition. The Aristotelian view, developed by the + theologians, was that what lies within the moon's orbit appertains to the + earth and is essentially transitory and evil, while what lies beyond it + belongs to the heavens and is permanent, regular, and pure. Tycho Brahe + and Kepler, therefore, having by means of scientific observation and + thought taken comets out of the category of meteors and appearances in the + neighbourhood of the earth, and placed them among the heavenly bodies, + dealt a blow at the very foundations of the theological argument, and gave + a great impulse to the idea that comets are themselves heavenly bodies + moving regularly and in obedience to law. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0023" id="link2H_4_0023"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IV. THEOLOGICAL EFFORTS AT COMPROMISE.—THE FINAL VICTORY OF SCIENCE. + </h2> + <p> + Attempts were now made to compromise. It was declared that, while some + comets were doubtless supralunar, some must be sublunar. But this + admission was no less fatal on another account. During many centuries the + theory favoured by the Church had been, as we have seen, that the earth + was surrounded by hollow spheres, concentric and transparent, forming a + number of glassy strata incasing one another "like the different coatings + of an onion," and that each of these in its movement about the earth + carries one or more of the heavenly bodies. Some maintained that these + spheres were crystal; but Lactantius, and with him various fathers of the + Church, spoke of the heavenly vault as made of ice. Now, the admission + that comets could move beyond the moon was fatal to this theory, for it + sent them crashing through these spheres of ice or crystal, and therefore + through the whole sacred fabric of the Ptolemaic theory.(120) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (120) For these features in cometary theory, see Pingre, vol. i, p. 89; +also Humboldt, Cosmos (English translation, London, 1868), vol. iii, p. +169. +</pre> + <p> + Here we may pause for a moment to note one of the chief differences + between scientific and theological reasoning considered in themselves. + Kepler's main reasoning as to the existence of a law for cometary movement + was right; but his secondary reasoning, that comets move nearly in + straight lines, was wrong. His right reasoning was developed by Gassendi + in France, by Borelli in Italy, by Hevel and Doerfel in Germany, by Eysat + and Bernouilli in Switzerland, by Percy and—most important of all, + as regards mathematical demonstration—by Newton in England. The + general theory, which was true, they accepted and developed; the secondary + theory, which was found untrue, they rejected; and, as a result, both of + what they thus accepted and of what they rejected, was evolved the basis + of the whole modern cometary theory. + </p> + <p> + Very different was this from the theological method. As a rule, when there + arises a thinker as great in theology as Kepler in science, the whole mass + of his conclusions ripens into a dogma. His disciples labour not to test + it, but to establish it; and while, in the Catholic Church, it becomes a + dogma to be believed or disbelieved under the penalty of damnation, it + becomes in the Protestant Church the basis for one more sect. + </p> + <p> + Various astronomers laboured to develop the truth discovered by Tycho and + strengthened by Kepler. Cassini seemed likely to win for Italy the glory + of completing the great structure; but he was sadly fettered by Church + influences, and was obliged to leave most of the work to others. Early + among these was Hevel. He gave reasons for believing that comets move in + parabolic curves toward the sun. Then came a man who developed this truth + further—Samuel Doerfel; and it is a pleasure to note that he was a + clergyman. The comet of 1680, which set Erni in Switzerland, Mather in New + England, and so many others in all parts of the world at declaiming, set + Doerfel at thinking. Undismayed by the authority of Origen and St. John + Chrysostom, the arguments of Luther, Melanchthon, and Zwingli, the + outcries of Celich, Heerbrand, and Dieterich, he pondered over the problem + in his little Saxon parsonage, until in 1681 he set forth his proofs that + comets are heavenly bodies moving in parabolas of which the sun is the + focus. Bernouilli arrived at the same conclusion; and, finally, this great + series of men and works was closed by the greatest of all, when Newton, in + 1686, having taken the data furnished by the comet of 1680, demonstrated + that comets are guided in their movements by the same principle that + controls the planets in their orbits. Thus was completed the evolution of + this new truth in science. + </p> + <p> + Yet we are not to suppose that these two great series of philosophical and + scientific victories cleared the field of all opponents. Declamation and + pretended demonstration of the old theologic view were still heard; but + the day of complete victory dawned when Halley, after most thorough + observation and calculation, recognised the comet of 1682 as one which had + already appeared at stated periods, and foretold its return in about + seventy-five years; and the battle was fully won when Clairaut, seconded + by Lalande and Mme. Lepaute, predicted distinctly the time when the comet + would arrive at its perihelion, and this prediction was verified.(121) + Then it was that a Roman heathen philosopher was proved more infallible + and more directly under Divine inspiration than a Roman Christian pontiff; + for the very comet which the traveller finds to-day depicted on the Bayeux + tapestry as portending destruction to Harold and the Saxons at the Norman + invasion of England, and which was regarded by Pope Calixtus as portending + evil to Christendom, was found six centuries later to be, as Seneca had + prophesied, a heavenly body obeying the great laws of the universe, and + coming at regular periods. Thenceforth the whole ponderous enginery of + this superstition, with its proof-texts regarding "signs in the heavens," + its theological reasoning to show the moral necessity of cometary + warnings, and its ecclesiastical fulminations against the "atheism, + godlessness, and infidelity" of scientific investigation, was seen by all + thinking men to be as weak against the scientific method as Indian arrows + against needle guns. Copernicus, Galileo, Cassini, Doerfel, Newton, + Halley, and Clairaut had gained the victory.(122) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (121) See Pingre, vol. i, p. 53; Grant, History of Physical Astronomy, +p. 305, etc., etc. For a curious partial anticipation by Hooke, in 1664, +of the great truth announced by Halley in 1682, see Pepy's Diary for +March 1, 1664. For excellent summaries of the whole work of Halley and +Clairaut and their forerunners and associates, see Pingre, Madler, Wolf, +Arago, et al. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (122) In accordance with Halley's prophecy, the comet of 1682 has +returned in 1759 and 1835. See Madler, Guillemin, Watson, Grant, +Delambre, Proctor, article Astronomy in Encycl. Brit., and especially +for details, Wolf, pp. 407-412 and 701-722. For clear statement +regarding Doerfel, see Wolf, p. 411. +</pre> + <p> + It is instructive to note, even after the main battle was lost, a renewal + of the attempt, always seen under like circumstances, to effect a + compromise, to establish a "safe science" on grounds pseudo-scientific and + pseudo-theologic. Luther, with his strong common sense, had foreshadowed + this; Kepler had expressed a willingness to accept it. It was insisted + that comets might be heavenly bodies moving in regular orbits, and even + obedient to law, and yet be sent as "signs in the heavens." Many good men + clung longingly to this phase of the old belief, and in 1770 Semler, + professor at Halle, tried to satisfy both sides. He insisted that, while + from a scientific point of view comets could not exercise any physical + influence upon the world, yet from a religious point of view they could + exercise a moral influence as reminders of the Just Judge of the Universe. + </p> + <p> + So hard was it for good men to give up the doctrine of "signs in the + heavens," seemingly based upon Scripture and exercising such a healthful + moral tendency! As is always the case after such a defeat, these votaries + of "sacred science" exerted the greatest ingenuity in devising statements + and arguments to avert the new doctrine. Within our own century the great + Catholic champion, Joseph de Maistre, echoed these in declaring his belief + that comets are special warnings of evil. So, too, in Protestant England, + in 1818, the Gentleman's Magazine stated that under the malign influence + of a recent comet "flies became blind and died early in the season," and + "the wife of a London shoemaker had four children at a birth." And even as + late as 1829 Mr. Forster, an English physician, published a work to prove + that comets produce hot summers, cold winters, epidemics, earthquakes, + clouds of midges and locusts, and nearly every calamity conceivable. He + bore especially upon the fact that the comet of 1665 was coincident with + the plague in London, apparently forgetting that the other great cities of + England and the Continent were not thus visited; and, in a climax, + announces the fact that the comet of 1663 "made all the cats in Westphalia + sick." + </p> + <p> + There still lingered one little cloud-patch of superstition, arising + mainly from the supposed fact that comets had really been followed by a + marked rise in temperature. Even this poor basis for the belief that they + might, after all, affect earthly affairs was swept away, and science won + here another victory; for Arago, by thermometric records carefully kept at + Paris from 1735 to 1781, proved that comets had produced no effect upon + temperature. Among multitudes of similar examples he showed that, in some + years when several comets appeared, the temperature was lower than in + other years when few or none appeared. In 1737 there were two comets, and + the weather was cool; in 1785 there was no comet, and the weather was hot; + through the whole fifty years it was shown that comets were sometimes + followed by hot weather, sometimes by cool, and that no rule was + deducible. The victory of science was complete at every point.(123) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (123) For Forster, see his Illustrations of the Atmospherical Origin of +Epidemic Diseases, Chelmsford, 1829, cited by Arago; also in Quarterly +Review for April, 1835. For the writings of several on both sides, and +especially those who sought to save, as far as possible, the sacred +theory of comets, see Madler, vol. ii, p. 384 et seq., and Wolf, p. 186. +</pre> + <p> + But in this history there was one little exhibition so curious as to be + worthy of notice, though its permanent effect upon thought was small. + Whiston and Burnet, so devoted to what they considered sacred science, had + determined that in some way comets must be instruments of Divine wrath. + One of them maintained that the deluge was caused by the tail of a comet + striking the earth; the other put forth the theory that comets are places + of punishment for the damned—in fact, "flying hells." The theories + of Whiston and Burnet found wide acceptance also in Germany, mainly + through the all-powerful mediation of Gottsched, so long, from his + professor's chair at Leipsic, the dictator of orthodox thought, who not + only wrote a brief tractate of his own upon the subject, but furnished a + voluminous historical introduction to the more elaborate treatise of Heyn. + In this book, which appeared at Leipsic in 1742, the agency of comets in + the creation, the flood, and the final destruction of the world is fully + proved. Both these theories were, however, soon discredited. + </p> + <p> + Perhaps the more interesting of them can best be met by another, which, if + not fully established, appears much better based—namely, that in + 1868 the earth passed directly through the tail of a comet, with no + deluge, no sound of any wailings of the damned, with but slight + appearances here and there, only to be detected by the keen sight of the + meteorological or astronomical observer. + </p> + <p> + In our own country superstitious ideas regarding comets continued to have + some little currency; but their life was short. The tendency shown by + Cotton Mather, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, toward + acknowledging the victory of science, was completed by the utterances of + Winthrop, professor at Harvard, who in 1759 published two lectures on + comets, in which he simply and clearly revealed the truth, never scoffing, + but reasoning quietly and reverently. In one passage he says: "To be + thrown into a panic whenever a comet appears, on account of the ill + effects which some few of them might possibly produce, if they were not + under proper direction, betrays a weakness unbecoming a reasonable being." + </p> + <p> + A happy influence in this respect was exercised on both continents by John + Wesley. Tenaciously as he had held to the supposed scriptural view in so + many other matters of science, in this he allowed his reason to prevail, + accepted the demonstrations of Halley, and gloried in them.(124) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (124) For Heyn, see his Versuch einer Betrachtung uber die cometun, die +Sundfluth und das Vorspeil des jungsten Gerichts, Leipsic, 1742. A Latin +version, of the same year, bears the title, Specimen Cometologiae Sacre. +For the theory that the earth encountered the tail of a comet, see +Guillemin and Watson. For survival of the old idea in America, see a +Sermon of Israel Loring, of Sudbury, published in 1722. For Prof. +J. Winthrop, see his Comets. For Wesley, see his Natural Philosophy, +London, 1784, vol. iii, p. 303. +</pre> + <p> + The victory was indeed complete. Happily, none of the fears expressed by + Conrad Dieterich and Increase Mather were realized. No catastrophe has + ensued either to religion or to morals. In the realm of religion the + Psalms of David remain no less beautiful, the great utterances of the + Hebrew prophets no less powerful; the Sermon on the Mount, "the first + commandment, and the second, which is like unto it," the definition of + "pure religion and undefiled" by St. James, appeal no less to the deepest + things in the human heart. In the realm of morals, too, serviceable as the + idea of firebrands thrown by the right hand of an avenging God to scare a + naughty world might seem, any competent historian must find that the + destruction of the old theological cometary theory was followed by moral + improvement rather than by deterioration. We have but to compare the + general moral tone of society to-day, wretchedly imperfect as it is, with + that existing in the time when this superstition had its strongest hold. + We have only to compare the court of Henry VIII with the court of + Victoria, the reign of the later Valois and earlier Bourbon princes with + the present French Republic, the period of the Medici and Sforzas and + Borgias with the period of Leo XIII and Humbert, the monstrous wickedness + of the Thirty Years' War with the ennobling patriotism of the + Franco-Prussian struggle, and the despotism of the miserable German + princelings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with the reign of + the Emperor William. The gain is not simply that mankind has arrived at a + clearer conception of law in the universe; not merely that thinking men + see more clearly that we are part of a system not requiring constant + patching and arbitrary interference; but perhaps best of all is the fact + that science has cleared away one more series of those dogmas which tend + to debase rather than to develop man's whole moral and religious nature. + In this emancipation from terror and fanaticism, as in so many other + results of scientific thinking, we have a proof of the inspiration of + those great words, "THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER V. FROM GENESIS TO GEOLOGY. + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0025" id="link2H_4_0025"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I. GROWTH OF THEOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS. + </h2> + <p> + Among the philosophers of Greece we find, even at an early period, germs + of geological truth, and, what is of vast importance, an atmosphere in + which such germs could grow. These germs were transmitted to Roman + thought; an atmosphere of tolerance continued; there was nothing which + forbade unfettered reasoning regarding either the earth's strata or the + remains of former life found in them, and under the Roman Empire a period + of fruitful observation seemed sure to begin. + </p> + <p> + But, as Christianity took control of the world, there came a great change. + The earliest attitude of the Church toward geology and its kindred + sciences was indifferent, and even contemptuous. According to the + prevailing belief, the earth was a "fallen world," and was soon to be + destroyed. Why, then, should it be studied? Why, indeed, give a thought to + it? The scorn which Lactantius and St. Augustine had cast upon the study + of astronomy was extended largely to other sciences. (125) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (125) For a compact and admirable statement as to the dawn of geological +conceptions in Greece and Rome, see Mr. Lester Ward's essay on +paleobotany in the Fifth Annual Report of the United States Geological +Survey, for 1883-'84. As to the reasons why Greek philosophers did +comparatively so little for geology, see D'Archiac, Geologie, p. 18. For +the contempt felt by Lactantius and St. Augustine toward astronomical +science, see foregoing chapters on Astronomy and Geography. +</pre> + <p> + But the germs of scientific knowledge and thought developed in the ancient + world could be entirely smothered neither by eloquence nor by logic; some + little scientific observation must be allowed, though all close reasoning + upon it was fettered by theology. Thus it was that St. Jerome insisted + that the broken and twisted crust of the earth exhibits the wrath of God + against sin, and Tertullian asserted that fossils resulted from the flood + of Noah. + </p> + <p> + To keep all such observation and reasoning within orthodox limits, St. + Augustine, about the beginning of the fifth century, began an effort to + develop from these germs a growth in science which should be sacred and + safe. With this intent he prepared his great commentary on the work of + creation, as depicted in Genesis, besides dwelling upon the subject in + other writings. Once engaged in this work, he gave himself to it more + earnestly than any other of the earlier fathers ever did; but his vast + powers of research and thought were not directed to actual observation or + reasoning upon observation. The keynote of his whole method is seen in his + famous phrase, "Nothing is to be accepted save on the authority of + Scripture, since greater is that authority than all the powers of the + human mind." All his thought was given to studying the letter of the + sacred text, and to making it explain natural phenomena by methods purely + theological.(126) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (126) For citations and authorities on these points, see the chapter on +Meteorology. +</pre> + <p> + Among the many questions he then raised and discussed may be mentioned + such as these: "What caused the creation of the stars on the fourth day?" + "Were beasts of prey and venomous animals created before, or after, the + fall of Adam? If before, how can their creation be reconciled with God's + goodness; if afterward, how can their creation be reconciled to the letter + of God's Word?" "Why were only beasts and birds brought before Adam to be + named, and not fishes and marine animals?" "Why did the Creator not say, + 'Be fruitful and multiply,' to plants as well as to animals?"(127) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (127) See Augustine, De Genesi, ii, 13, 15, et seq.; ix, 12 et seq. For +the reference to St. Jerome, see Shields, Final Philosophy, p. 119; also +Leyell, Introduction to Geology, vol. i, chap. ii. +</pre> + <p> + Sundry answers to these and similar questions formed the main + contributions of the greatest of the Latin fathers to the scientific + knowledge of the world, after a most thorough study of the biblical text + and a most profound application of theological reasoning. The results of + these contributions were most important. In this, as in so many other + fields, Augustine gave direction to the main current of thought in western + Europe, Catholic and Protestant, for nearly thirteen centuries. + </p> + <p> + In the ages that succeeded, the vast majority of prominent scholars + followed him implicitly. Even so strong a man as Pope Gregory the Great + yielded to his influence, and such leaders of thought as St. Isidore, in + the seventh century, and the Venerable Bede, in the eighth, planting + themselves upon Augustine's premises, only ventured timidly to extend + their conclusions upon lines he had laid down. + </p> + <p> + In his great work on Etymologies, Isidore took up Augustine's attempt to + bring the creation into satisfactory relations with the book of Genesis, + and, as to fossil remains, he, like Tertullian, thought that they resulted + from the Flood of Noah. In the following century Bede developed the same + orthodox traditions.(128) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (128) For Isidore, see the Etymologiae, xi, 4, xiii, 22. For Bede, see +the Hexaemeron, i, ii, in Migne, tome xci. +</pre> + <p> + The best guess, in a geological sense, among the followers of St. + Augustine was made by an Irish monkish scholar, who, in order to diminish + the difficulty arising from the distribution of animals, especially in + view of the fact that the same animals are found in Ireland as in England, + held that various lands now separated were once connected. But, alas! the + exigencies of theology forced him to place their separation later than the + Flood. Happily for him, such facts were not yet known as that the kangaroo + is found only on an island in the South Pacific, and must therefore, + according to his theory, have migrated thither with all his progeny, and + along a causeway so curiously constructed that none of the beasts of prey, + who were his fellow-voyagers in the ark, could follow him. + </p> + <p> + These general lines of thought upon geology and its kindred science of + zoology were followed by St. Thomas Aquinas and by the whole body of + medieval theologians, so far as they gave any attention to such subjects. + </p> + <p> + The next development of geology, mainly under Church guidance, was by + means of the scholastic theology. Phrase-making was substituted for + investigation. Without the Church and within it wonderful contributions + were thus made. In the eleventh century Avicenna accounted for the fossils + by suggesting a "stone-making force";(129) in the thirteenth, Albert the + Great attributed them to a "formative quality;"(130) in the following + centuries some philosophers ventured the idea that they grew from seed; + and the Aristotelian doctrine of spontaneous generation was constantly + used to prove that these stony fossils possessed powers of reproduction + like plants and animals.(131) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (129) Vis lapidifica. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (130) Virtus formativa. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (131) See authorities given in Mr. Ward's assay, as above. +</pre> + <p> + Still, at various times and places, germs implanted by Greek and Roman + thought were warmed into life. The Arabian schools seem to have been less + fettered by the letter of the Koran than the contemporary Christian + scholars by the letter of the Bible; and to Avicenna belongs the credit of + first announcing substantially the modern geological theory of changes in + the earth's surface.(132) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (132) For Avicenna, see Lyell and D'Archiac. +</pre> + <p> + The direct influence of the Reformation was at first unfavourable to + scientific progress, for nothing could be more at variance with any + scientific theory of the development of the universe than the ideas of the + Protestant leaders. That strict adherence to the text of Scripture which + made Luther and Melanchthon denounce the idea that the planets revolve + about the sun, was naturally extended to every other scientific statement + at variance with the sacred text. There is much reason to believe that the + fetters upon scientific thought were closer under the strict + interpretation of Scripture by the early Protestants than they had been + under the older Church. The dominant spirit among the Reformers is shown + by the declaration of Peter Martyr to the effect that, if a wrong opinion + should obtain regarding the creation as described in Genesis, "all the + promises of Christ fall into nothing, and all the life of our religion + would be lost."(133) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (133) See his Commentary on Genesis, cited by Zoeckler, Geschichte der +Beziehungen zwischen Theologie und Naturwissenschaft, vol. i, p. 690. +</pre> + <p> + In the times immediately succeeding the Reformation matters went from bad + to worse. Under Luther and Melanchthon there was some little freedom of + speculation, but under their successors there was none; to question any + interpretation of Luther came to be thought almost as wicked as to + question the literal interpretation of the Scriptures themselves. Examples + of this are seen in the struggles between those who held that birds were + created entirely from water and those who held that they were created out + of water and mud. In the city of Lubeck, the ancient centre of the + Hanseatic League, close at the beginning of the seventeenth century, + Pfeiffer, "General Superintendent" or bishop in those parts, published his + Pansophia Mosaica, calculated, as he believed, to beat back science + forever. In a long series of declamations he insisted that in the strict + text of Genesis alone is safety, that it contains all wisdom and + knowledge, human and divine. This being the case, who could care to waste + time on the study of material things and give thought to the structure of + the world? Above all, who, after such a proclamation by such a ruler in + the Lutheran Israel, would dare to talk of the "days" mentioned in Genesis + as "periods of time"; or of the "firmament" as not meaning a solid vault + over the universe; or of the "waters above the heavens" as not contained + in a vast cistern supported by the heavenly vault; or of the "windows of + heaven" as a figure of speech?(134) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (134) For Pfeiffer, see Zoeckler, vol. i, pp. 688, 689. +</pre> + <p> + In England the same spirit was shown even as late as the time of Sir + Matthew Hale. We find in his book on the Origination of Mankind, published + in 1685, the strictest devotion to a theory of creation based upon the + mere letter of Scripture, and a complete inability to draw knowledge + regarding the earth's origin and structure from any other source. + </p> + <p> + While the Lutheran, Calvinistic, and Anglican Reformers clung to literal + interpretations of the sacred books, and turned their faces away from + scientific investigation, it was among their contemporaries at the revival + of learning that there began to arise fruitful thought in this field. Then + it was, about the beginning of the sixteenth century, that Leonardo da + Vinci, as great a genius in science as in art, broached the true idea as + to the origin of fossil remains; and his compatriot, Fracastoro, developed + this on the modern lines of thought. Others in other parts of Europe took + up the idea, and, while mixing with it many crudities, drew from it more + and more truth. Toward the end of the sixteenth century Bernard Palissy, + in France, took hold of it with the same genius which he showed in + artistic creation; but, remarkable as were his assertions of scientific + realities, they could gain little hearing. Theologians, philosophers, and + even some scientific men of value, under the sway of scholastic phrases, + continued to insist upon such explanations as that fossils were the + product of "fatty matter set into a fermentation by heat"; or of a + "lapidific juice";(135) or of a "seminal air";(136) or of a "tumultuous + movement of terrestrial exhalations"; and there was a prevailing belief + that fossil remains, in general, might be brought under the head of + "sports of Nature," a pious turn being given to this phrase by the + suggestion that these "sports" indicated some inscrutable purpose of the + Almighty. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (135) Succus lapidificus. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (136) Aura seminalis. +</pre> + <p> + This remained a leading orthodox mode of explanation in the Church, + Catholic and Protestant, for centuries. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0026" id="link2H_4_0026"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II. EFFORTS TO SUPPRESS THE SCIENTIFIC VIEW. + </h2> + <p> + But the scientific method could not be entirely hidden; and, near the + beginning of the seventeenth century, De Clave, Bitaud, and De Villon + revived it in France. Straightway the theological faculty of Paris + protested against the scientific doctrine as unscriptural, destroyed the + offending treatises, banished their authors from Paris, and forbade them + to live in towns or enter places of public resort.(137) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (137) See Morley, Life of Palissy the Potter, vol. ii, p. 315 et seq. +</pre> + <p> + The champions of science, though depressed for a time, quietly laboured + on, especially in Italy. Half a century later, Steno, a Dane, and Scilla, + an Italian, went still further in the right direction; and, though they + and their disciples took great pains to throw a tub to the whale, in the + shape of sundry vague concessions to the Genesis legends, they developed + geological truth more and more. + </p> + <p> + In France, the old theological spirit remained exceedingly powerful. About + the middle of the eighteenth century Buffon made another attempt to state + simple geological truths; but the theological faculty of the Sorbonne + dragged him at once from his high position, forced him to recant + ignominiously, and to print his recantation. It runs as follows: "I + declare that I had no intention to contradict the text of Scripture; that + I believe most firmly all therein related about the creation, both as to + order of time and matter of fact. I abandon everything in my book + respecting the formation of the earth, and generally all which may be + contrary to the narrative of Moses." This humiliating document reminds us + painfully of that forced upon Galileo a hundred years before. + </p> + <p> + It has been well observed by one of the greatest of modern authorities + that the doctrine which Buffon thus "abandoned" is as firmly established + as that of the earth's rotation upon its axis.(138) Yet one hundred and + fifty years were required to secure for it even a fair hearing; the + prevailing doctrine of the Church continued to be that "all things were + made at the beginning of the world," and that to say that stones and + fossils were made before or since "the beginning" is contrary to + Scripture. Again we find theological substitutes for scientific + explanation ripening into phrases more and more hollow—making + fossils "sports of Nature," or "mineral concretions," or "creations of + plastic force," or "models" made by the Creator before he had fully + decided upon the best manner of creating various beings. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (138) See citation and remark in Lyell's Principles of Geology, chap. +iii, p. 57; also Huxley, Essays on Controverted Questions, p. 62. +</pre> + <p> + Of this period, when theological substitutes for science were carrying all + before them, there still exists a monument commemorating at the same time + a farce and a tragedy. This is the work of Johann Beringer, professor in + the University of Wurzburg and private physician to the Prince-Bishop—the + treatise bearing the title Lithographiae Wirceburgensis Specimen Primum, + "illustrated with the marvellous likenesses of two hundred figured or + rather insectiform stones." Beringer, for the greater glory of God, had + previously committed himself so completely to the theory that fossils are + simply "stones of a peculiar sort, hidden by the Author of Nature for his + own pleasure,"(139) that some of his students determined to give his faith + in that pious doctrine a thorough trial. They therefore prepared a + collection of sham fossils in baked clay, imitating not only plants, + reptiles, and fishes of every sort that their knowledge or imagination + could suggest, but even Hebrew and Syriac inscriptions, one of them the + name of the Almighty; and these they buried in a place where the professor + was wont to search for specimens. The joy of Beringer on unearthing these + proofs of the immediate agency of the finger of God in creating fossils + knew no bounds. At great cost he prepared this book, whose twenty-two + elaborate plates of facsimiles were forever to settle the question in + favour of theology and against science, and prefixed to the work an + allegorical title page, wherein not only the glory of his own sovereign, + but that of heaven itself, was pictured as based upon a pyramid of these + miraculous fossils. So robust was his faith that not even a premature + exposure of the fraud could dissuade him from the publication of his book. + Dismissing in one contemptuous chapter this exposure as a slander by his + rivals, he appealed to the learned world. But the shout of laughter that + welcomed the work soon convinced even its author. In vain did he try to + suppress it; and, according to tradition, having wasted his fortune in + vain attempts to buy up all the copies of it, and being taunted by the + rivals whom he had thought to overwhelm, he died of chagrin. Even death + did not end his misfortunes. The copies of the first edition having been + sold by a graceless descendant to a Leipsic bookseller, a second edition + was brought out under a new title, and this, too, is now much sought as a + precious memorial of human credulity.(140) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (139) See Beringer's Lithographiae, etc., p. 91. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (140) See Carus, Geschichte der Zoologie, Munich, 1872, p. 467, note, +and Reusch, Bibel und Natur, p. 197. A list of authorities upon this +episode, with the text of one of the epigrams circulated at poor +Beringer's expense, is given by Dr. Reuss in the Serapeum for 1852, p. +203. The book itself (the original impression) is in the White Library +at Cornell University. For Beringer himself, see especially the +encyclopedia of Ersch and Gruber, and the Allgemeine deutsche +Biographie. +</pre> + <p> + But even this discomfiture did not end the idea which had caused it, for, + although some latitude was allowed among the various theologico-scientific + explanations, it was still held meritorious to believe that all fossils + were placed in the strata on one of the creative days by the hand of the + Almighty, and that this was done for some mysterious purpose, probably for + the trial of human faith. + </p> + <p> + Strange as it may at first seem, the theological war against a scientific + method in geology was waged more fiercely in Protestant countries than in + Catholic. The older Church had learned by her costly mistakes, especially + in the cases of Copernicus and Galileo, what dangers to her claim of + infallibility lay in meddling with a growing science. In Italy, therefore, + comparatively little opposition was made, while England furnished the most + bitter opponents to geology so long as the controversy could be + maintained, and the most active negotiators in patching up a truce on the + basis of a sham science afterward. The Church of England did, indeed, + produce some noble men, like Bishop Clayton and John Mitchell, who stood + firmly by the scientific method; but these appear generally to have been + overwhelmed by a chorus of churchmen and dissenters, whose mixtures of + theology and science, sometimes tragic in their results and sometimes + comic, are among the most instructive things in modern history.(141) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (141) For a comparison between the conduct of Italian and English +ecclesiastics as regards geology, see Lyell, Principles of Geology, +tenth English edition, vol. i, p. 33. For a philosophical statement of +reasons why the struggle was more bitter and the attempt at deceptive +compromises more absurd in England than elsewhere, see Maury, +L'Ancienne Academie des Sciences, second edition, p. 152. For very +frank confessions of the reasons why the Catholic Church has become +more careful in her dealings with science, see Roberts, The Pontifical +Decrees against the Earth's Movement, London, 1885, especially pp. 94 +and 132, 133, and St. George Mivart's article in the Nineteenth Century +for July 1885. The first of these gentlemen, it must not be forgotten, +is a Roman Catholic clergyman and the second an eminent layman of the +same Church, and both admit that it was the Pope, speaking ex cathedra, +who erred in the Galileo case; but their explanation is that God allowed +the Pope and Church to fall into this grievous error, which has cost so +dear, in order to show once and for all that the Church has no right to +decide questions in Science. +</pre> + <p> + We have already noted that there are generally three periods or phases in + a theological attack upon any science. The first of these is marked by the + general use of scriptural texts and statements against the new scientific + doctrine; the third by attempts at compromise by means of far-fetched + reconciliations of textual statements with ascertained fact; but the + second or intermediate period between these two is frequently marked by + the pitting against science of some great doctrine in theology. We saw + this in astronomy, when Bellarmin and his followers insisted that the + scientific doctrine of the earth revolving about the sun is contrary to + the theological doctrine of the incarnation. So now against geology it was + urged that the scientific doctrine that fossils represent animals which + died before Adam contradicts the theological doctrine of Adam's fall and + the statement that "death entered the world by sin." + </p> + <p> + In this second stage of the theological struggle with geology, England was + especially fruitful in champions of orthodoxy, first among whom may be + named Thomas Burnet. In the last quarter of the seventeenth century, just + at the time when Newton's great discovery was given to the world, Burnet + issued his Sacred Theory of the Earth. His position was commanding; he was + a royal chaplain and a cabinet officer. Planting himself upon the famous + text in the second epistle of Peter,(142) he declares that the flood had + destroyed the old and created a new world. The Newtonian theory he refuses + to accept. In his theory of the deluge he lays less stress upon the + "opening of the windows of heaven" than upon the "breaking up of the + fountains of the great deep." On this latter point he comes forth with + great strength. His theory is that the earth is hollow, and filled with + fluid like an egg. Mixing together sundry texts from Genesis and from the + second epistle of Peter, the theological doctrine of the "Fall," an + astronomical theory regarding the ecliptic, and various notions adapted + from Descartes, he insisted that, before sin brought on the Deluge, the + earth was of perfect mathematical form, smooth and beautiful, "like an + egg," with neither seas nor islands nor valleys nor rocks, "with not a + wrinkle, scar, or fracture," and that all creation was equally perfect. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (142) See II Peter iii, 6. +</pre> + <p> + In the second book of his great work Burnet went still further. As in his + first book he had mixed his texts of Genesis and St. Peter with Descartes, + he now mixed the account of the Garden of Eden in Genesis with heathen + legends of the golden age, and concluded that before the flood there was + over the whole earth perpetual spring, disturbed by no rain more severe + than the falling of the dew. + </p> + <p> + In addition to his other grounds for denying the earlier existence of the + sea, he assigned the reason that, if there had been a sea before the + Deluge, sinners would have learned to build ships, and so, when the Deluge + set in, could have saved themselves. + </p> + <p> + The work was written with much power, and attracted universal attention. + It was translated into various languages, and called forth a multitude of + supporters and opponents in all parts of Europe. Strong men rose against + it, especially in England, and among them a few dignitaries of the Church; + but the Church generally hailed the work with joy. Addison praised it in a + Latin ode, and for nearly a century it exercised a strong influence upon + European feeling, and aided to plant more deeply than ever the theological + opinion that the earth as now existing is merely a ruin; whereas, before + sin brought on the Flood, it was beautiful in its "egg-shaped form," and + free from every imperfection. + </p> + <p> + A few years later came another writer of the highest standing—William + Whiston, professor at Cambridge, who in 1696 published his New Theory of + the Earth. Unlike Burnet, he endeavoured to avail himself of the Newtonian + idea, and brought in, to aid the geological catastrophe caused by human + sin, a comet, which broke open "the fountains of the great deep." + </p> + <p> + But, far more important than either of these champions, there arose in the + eighteenth century, to aid in the subjection of science to theology, three + men of extraordinary power—John Wesley, Adam Clarke, and Richard + Watson. All three were men of striking intellectual gifts, lofty + character, and noble purpose, and the first-named one of the greatest men + in English history; yet we find them in geology hopelessly fettered by the + mere letter of Scripture, and by a temporary phase in theology. As in + regard to witchcraft and the doctrine of comets, so in regard to geology, + this theological view drew Wesley into enormous error.(143) The great + doctrine which Wesley, Watson, Clarke, and their compeers, following St. + Augustine, Bede, Peter Lombard, and a long line of the greatest minds in + the universal Church, thought it especially necessary to uphold against + geologists was, that death entered the world by sin—by the first + transgression of Adam and Eve. The extent to which the supposed necessity + of upholding this doctrine carried Wesley seems now almost beyond belief. + Basing his theology on the declaration that the Almighty after creation + found the earth and all created things "very good," he declares, in his + sermon on the Cause and Cure of Earthquakes, that no one who believes the + Scriptures can deny that "sin is the moral cause of earthquakes, whatever + their natural cause may be." Again, he declares that earthquakes are the + "effect of that curse which was brought upon the earth by the original + transgression." Bringing into connection with Genesis the declaration of + St. Paul that "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth together in pain + until now," he finds additional scriptural proof that the earthquakes were + the result of Adam's fall. He declares, in his sermon on God's Approbation + of His Works, that "before the sin of Adam there were no agitations within + the bowels of the earth, no violent convulsions, no concussions of the + earth, no earthquakes, but all was unmoved as the pillars of heaven. There + were then no such things as eruptions of fires; no volcanoes or burning + mountains." Of course, a science which showed that earthquakes had been in + operation for ages before the appearance of man on the planet, and which + showed, also, that those very earthquakes which he considered as curses + resultant upon the Fall were really blessings, producing the fissures in + which we find today those mineral veins so essential to modern + civilization, was entirely beyond his comprehension. He insists that + earthquakes are "God's strange works of judgment, the proper effect and + punishment of sin." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (143) For his statement that "the giving up of witchcraft is in effect +the giving up of the Bible," see Welsey's Journal, 1766-'68. +</pre> + <p> + So, too, as to death and pain. In his sermon on the Fall of Man he took + the ground that death and pain entered the world by Adam's transgression, + insisting that the carnage now going on among animals is the result of + Adam's sin. Speaking of the birds, beasts, and insects, he says that, + before sin entered the world by Adam's fall, "none of these attempted to + devour or in any way hurt one another"; that "the spider was then as + harmless as the fly and did not then lie in wait for blood." Here, again, + Wesley arrayed his early followers against geology, which reveals, in the + fossil remains of carnivorous animals, pain and death countless ages + before the appearance of man. The half-digested fragments of weaker + animals within the fossilized bodies of the stronger have destroyed all + Wesley's arguments in behalf of his great theory.(144) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (144) See Wesley's sermon on God's Approbation of His Works, parts xi +and xii. +</pre> + <p> + Dr. Adam Clarke held similar views. He insisted that thorns and thistles + were given as a curse to human labour, on account of Adam's sin, and + appeared upon the earth for the first time after Adam's fall. So, too, + Richard Watson, the most prolific writer of the great evangelical reform + period, and the author of the Institutes, the standard theological + treatise on the evangelical side, says, in a chapter treating of the Fall, + and especially of the serpent which tempted Eve: "We have no reason at all + to believe that the animal had a serpentine form in any mode or degree + until his transformation. That he was then degraded to a reptile, to go + upon his belly, imports, on the contrary, an entire alteration and loss of + the original form." All that admirable adjustment of the serpent to its + environment which delights naturalists was to the Wesleyan divine simply + an evil result of the sin of Adam and Eve. Yet here again geology was + obliged to confront theology in revealing the PYTHON in the Eocene, ages + before man appeared.(145) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (145) See Westminster Review, October, 1870, article on John Wesley's +Cosmogony, with citations from Wesley's Sermons, Watson's Institutes of +Theology, Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, etc. +</pre> + <p> + The immediate results of such teaching by such men was to throw many who + would otherwise have resorted to observation and investigation back upon + scholastic methods. Again reappears the old system of solving the riddle + by phrases. In 1733, Dr. Theodore Arnold urged the theory of "models," and + insisted that fossils result from "infinitesimal particles brought + together in the creation to form the outline of all the creatures and + objects upon and within the earth"; and Arnold's work gained wide + acceptance.(146) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (146) See citation in Mr. Ward's article, as above, p. 390. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> +Such was the influence of this succession of great men that toward the +close of the last century the English opponents of geology on biblical +grounds seemed likely to sweep all before them. Cramping our whole +inheritance of sacred literature within the rules of a historical +compend, they showed the terrible dangers arising from the revelations +of geology, which make the earth older than the six thousand years +required by Archbishop Usher's interpretation of the Old Testament. +Nor was this feeling confined to ecclesiastics. Williams, a thoughtful +layman, declared that such researches led to infidelity and atheism, and +are "nothing less than to depose the Almighty Creator of the universe +from his office." The poet Cowper, one of the mildest of men, was also +roused by these dangers, and in his most elaborate poem wrote: + + "Some drill and bore +The solid earth, and from the strata there Extract a register, by +which we learn That He who made it, and revealed its date To Moses, was +mistaken in its age!" +</pre> + <p> + John Howard summoned England to oppose "those scientific systems which are + calculated to tear up in the public mind every remaining attachment to + Christianity." + </p> + <p> + With this special attack upon geological science by means of the dogma of + Adam's fall, the more general attack by the literal interpretation of the + text was continued. The legendary husks and rinds of our sacred books were + insisted upon as equally precious and nutritious with the great moral and + religious truths which they envelop. Especially precious were the six days—each + "the evening and the morning"—and the exact statements as to the + time when each part of creation came into being. To save these, the + struggle became more and more desperate. + </p> + <p> + Difficult as it is to realize it now, within the memory of many now living + the battle was still raging most fiercely in England, and both kinds of + artillery usually brought against a new science were in full play, and + filling the civilized world with their roar. + </p> + <p> + About half a century since, the Rev. J. Mellor Brown, the Rev. Henry Cole, + and others were hurling at all geologists alike, and especially at such + Christian scholars as Dr. Buckland and Dean Conybeare and Pye Smith and + Prof. Sedgwick, the epithets of "infidel," "impugner of the sacred + record," and "assailant of the volume of God."(147) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (147) For these citations, see Lyell, Principles of Geology, +introduction. +</pre> + <p> + The favourite weapon of the orthodox party was the charge that the + geologists were "attacking the truth of God." They declared geology "not a + subject of lawful inquiry," denouncing it as "a dark art," as "dangerous + and disreputable," as "a forbidden province," as "infernal artillery," and + as "an awful evasion of the testimony of revelation."(148) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (148) See Pye Smith, D. D., Geology and Scripture, pp. 156, 157, 168, +169. +</pre> + <p> + This attempt to scare men from the science having failed, various other + means were taken. To say nothing about England, it is humiliating to human + nature to remember the annoyances, and even trials, to which the pettiest + and narrowest of men subjected such Christian scholars in our own country + as Benjamin Silliman and Edward Hitchcock and Louis Agassiz. + </p> + <p> + But it is a duty and a pleasure to state here that one great Christian + scholar did honour to religion and to himself by quietly accepting the + claims of science and making the best of them, despite all these clamours. + This man was Nicholas Wiseman, better known afterward as Cardinal Wiseman. + The conduct of this pillar of the Roman Catholic Church contrasts + admirably with that of timid Protestants, who were filling England with + shrieks and denunciations.(149) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (149) Wiseman, Twelve Lectures on the Connection between Science and +Revealed Religion, first American edition, New York, 1837. As to the +comparative severity of the struggle regarding astronomy, geology, etc., +in the Catholic and Protestant countries, see Lecky's England in the +Eighteenth Century, chap. ix, p. 525. +</pre> + <p> + And here let it be noted that one of the most interesting skirmishes in + this war occurred in New England. Prof. Stuart, of Andover, justly + honoured as a Hebrew scholar, declared that to speak of six periods of + time for the creation was flying in the face of Scripture; that Genesis + expressly speaks of six days, each made up of "the evening and the + morning," and not six periods of time. + </p> + <p> + To him replied a professor in Yale College, James Kingsley. In an article + admirable for keen wit and kindly temper, he showed that Genesis speaks + just as clearly of a solid firmament as of six ordinary days, and that, if + Prof. Stuart had surmounted one difficulty and accepted the Copernican + theory, he might as well get over another and accept the revelations of + geology. The encounter was quick and decisive, and the victory was with + science and the broader scholarship of Yale.(150) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (150) See Silliman's Journal, vol. xxx, p. 114. +</pre> + <p> + Perhaps the most singular attempt against geology was made by a fine + survival of the eighteenth century Don—Dean Cockburn, of York—to + SCOLD its champions off the field. Having no adequate knowledge of the new + science, he opened a battery of abuse, giving it to the world at large + from the pulpit and through the press, and even through private letters. + From his pulpit in York Minster he denounced Mary Somerville by name for + those studies in physical geography which have made her name honoured + throughout the world. + </p> + <p> + But the special object of his antipathy was the British Association for + the Advancement of Science. He issued a pamphlet against it which went + through five editions in two years, sent solemn warnings to its president, + and in various ways made life a burden to Sedgwick, Buckland, and other + eminent investigators who ventured to state geological facts as they found + them. + </p> + <p> + These weapons were soon seen to be ineffective; they were like Chinese + gongs and dragon lanterns against rifled cannon; the work of science went + steadily on.(151) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (151) Prof. Goldwin Smith informs me that the papers of Sir Robert Peel, +yet unpublished, contain very curious specimens of the epistles of Dean +Cockburn. See also Personal Recollections of Mary Somerville, Boston, +1874, pp. 139 and 375. Compare with any statement of his religious views +that Dean Cockburn was able to make, the following from Mrs. Somerville: +"Nothing has afforded me so convincing a proof of the Deity as these +purely mental conceptions of numerical and mathematical science which +have been, by slow degrees, vouchsafed to man—and are still granted +in these latter times by the differential calculus, now superseded by +the higher algebra—all of which must have existed in that sublimely +omniscient mind from eternity." See also The Life and Letters of Adam +Sedgwick, Cambridge, 1890, vol. ii, pp. 76 and following. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0027" id="link2H_4_0027"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III. THE FIRST GREAT EFFORT AT COMPROMISE, BASED ON THE FLOOD OF NOAH. + </h2> + <p> + Long before the end of the struggle already described, even at a very + early period, the futility of the usual scholastic weapons had been seen + by the more keen-sighted champions of orthodoxy; and, as the difficulties + of the ordinary attack upon science became more and more evident, many of + these champions endeavoured to patch up a truce. So began the third stage + in the war—the period of attempts at compromise. + </p> + <p> + The position which the compromise party took was that the fossils were + produced by the Deluge of Noah. + </p> + <p> + This position was strong, for it was apparently based upon Scripture. + Moreover, it had high ecclesiastical sanction, some of the fathers having + held that fossil remains, even on the highest mountains, represented + animals destroyed at the Deluge. Tertullian was especially firm on this + point, and St. Augustine thought that a fossil tooth discovered in North + Africa must have belonged to one of the giants mentioned in + Scripture.(152) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (152) For Tertullian, see his De Pallio, c. ii (Migne, Patr. Lat., +vol. ii, p. 1033). For Augustine's view, see Cuvier, Recherches sur les +Ossements fossiles, fourth edition, vol. ii, p. 143. +</pre> + <p> + In the sixteenth century especially, weight began to be attached to this + idea by those who felt the worthlessness of various scholastic + explanations. Strong men in both the Catholic and the Protestant camps + accepted it; but the man who did most to give it an impulse into modern + theology was Martin Luther. He easily saw that scholastic phrase-making + could not meet the difficulties raised by fossils, and he naturally urged + the doctrine of their origin at Noah's Flood.(153) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (153) For Luther's opinion, see his Commentary on Genesis. +</pre> + <p> + With such support, it soon became the dominant theory in Christendom: + nothing seemed able to stand against it; but before the end of the same + sixteenth century it met some serious obstacles. Bernard Palissy, one of + the most keen-sighted of scientific thinkers in France, as well as one of + the most devoted of Christians, showed that it was utterly untenable. + Conscientious investigators in other parts of Europe, and especially in + Italy, showed the same thing; all in vain.(154) In vain did good men + protest against the injury sure to be brought upon religion by tying it to + a scientific theory sure to be exploded; the doctrine that fossils are the + remains of animals drowned at the Flood continued to be upheld by the + great majority of theological leaders for nearly three centuries as "sound + doctrine," and as a blessed means of reconciling science with Scripture. + To sustain this scriptural view, efforts energetic and persistent were put + forth both by Catholics and Protestants. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (154) For a very full statement of the honourable record of Italy in +this respect, and for the enlightened views of some Italian churchmen, +see Stoppani, Il Dogma a le Scienze Positive, Milan, 1886, pp. 203 et +seq. +</pre> + <p> + In France, the learned Benedictine, Calmet, in his great works on the + Bible, accepted it as late as the beginning of the eighteenth century, + believing the mastodon's bones exhibited by Mazurier to be those of King + Teutobocus, and holding them valuable testimony to the existence of the + giants mentioned in Scripture and of the early inhabitants of the earth + overwhelmed by the Flood.(155) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (155) For the steady adherence to this sacred theory, see Audiat, Vie de +Palissy, p. 412, and Cantu, Histoire Universelle, vol. xv, p. 492. For +Calmet, see his Dissertation sur les Geants, cited in Berger de Xivery, +Traditions Teratologiques, p. 191. +</pre> + <p> + But the greatest champion appeared in England. We have already seen how, + near the close of the seventeenth century, Thomas Burnet prepared the way + in his Sacred Theory of the Earth by rejecting the discoveries of Newton, + and showing how sin led to the breaking up of the "foundations of the + great deep," and we have also seen how Whiston, in his New Theory of the + Earth, while yielding a little and accepting the discoveries of Newton, + brought in a comet to aid in producing the Deluge; but far more important + than these in permanent influence was John Woodward, professor at Gresham + College, a leader in scientific thought at the University of Cambridge, + and, as a patient collector of fossils and an earnest investigator of + their meaning, deserving of the highest respect. In 1695 he published his + Natural History of the Earth, and rendered one great service to science, + for he yielded another point, and thus destroyed the foundations for the + old theory of fossils. He showed that they were not "sports of Nature," or + "models inserted by the Creator in the strata for some inscrutable + purpose," but that they were really remains of living beings, as + Xenophanes had asserted two thousand years before him. So far, he rendered + a great service both to science and religion; but, this done, the text of + the Old Testament narrative and the famous passage in St. Peter's Epistle + were too strong for him, and he, too, insisted that the fossils were + produced by the Deluge. Aided by his great authority, the assault on the + true scientific position was vigorous: Mazurier exhibited certain fossil + remains of a mammoth discovered in France as bones of the giants mentioned + in Scripture; Father Torrubia did the same thing in Spain; Increase Mather + sent to England similar remains discovered in America, with a like + statement. + </p> + <p> + For the edification of the faithful, such "bones of the giants mentioned + in Scripture" were hung up in public places. Jurieu saw some of them thus + suspended in one of the churches of Valence; and Henrion, apparently under + the stimulus thus given, drew up tables showing the size of our + antediluvian ancestors, giving the height of Adam as 123 feet 9 inches and + that of Eve as 118 feet 9 inches and 9 lines.(156) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (156) See Cuvier, Recherches sur les Ossements fossiles, fourth edition, +vol. ii, p. 56; also Geoffrey St.-Hilaire, cited by Berger de Xivery, +Traditions Teratologiques, p. 190. +</pre> + <p> + But the most brilliant service rendered to the theological theory came + from another quarter for, in 1726, Scheuchzer, having discovered a large + fossil lizard, exhibited it to the world as the "human witness of the + Deluge":(157) this great discovery was hailed everywhere with joy, for it + seemed to prove not only that human beings were drowned at the Deluge, but + that "there were giants in those days." Cheered by the applause thus + gained, he determined to make the theological position impregnable. Mixing + together various texts of Scripture with notions derived from the + philosophy of Descartes and the speculations of Whiston, he developed the + theory that "the fountains of the great deep" were broken up by the direct + physical action of the hand of God, which, being literally applied to the + axis of the earth, suddenly stopped the earth's rotation, broke up "the + fountains of the great deep," spilled the water therein contained, and + produced the Deluge. But his service to sacred science did not end here, + for he prepared an edition of the Bible, in which magnificent engravings + in great number illustrated his view and enforced it upon all readers. Of + these engravings no less than thirty-four were devoted to the Deluge + alone.(158) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (157) Homo diluvii testis. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (158) See Zoeckler, vol. ii, p. 172; also Scheuchzer, Physica Sacra, +Augustae Vindel et Ulmae, 1732. For the ancient belief regarding +giants, see Leopoldi, Saggio. For accounts of the views of Mazaurier and +Scheuchzer, see Cuvier; also Buchner, Man in Past, Present, and Future, +English translation, pp. 235, 236. For Increase Mather's views, see +Philosophical Transactions, vol. xxiv, p. 85. As to similar fossils +sent from New York to the Royal Society as remains of giants, see Weld, +History of the Royal Society, vol. i, p. 421. For Father Torrubia and +his Gigantologia Espanola, see D'Archiac, Introduction a l'Etude de +la Paleontologie Stratigraphique, Paris, 1864, p. 201. For admirable +summaries, see Lyell, Principles of Geology, London, 1867; D'Archiac, +Geologie et Paleontologie, Paris, 1866; Pictet, Traite de Paleontologie, +Paris, 1853; Vezian, Prodrome de la Geologie, Paris, 1863; Haeckel, +History of Creation, English translation, New York, 1876, chap. iii; +and for recent progress, Prof. O. S. Marsh's Address on the History and +Methods of Paleontology. +</pre> + <p> + In the midst all this came an episode very comical but very instructive; + for it shows that the attempt to shape the deductions of science to meet + the exigencies of dogma may mislead heterodoxy as absurdly as orthodoxy. + </p> + <p> + About the year 1760 news of the discovery of marine fossils in various + elevated districts of Europe reached Voltaire. He, too, had a theologic + system to support, though his system was opposed to that of the sacred + books of the Hebrews; and, fearing that these new discoveries might be + used to support the Mosaic accounts of the Deluge, all his wisdom and wit + were compacted into arguments to prove that the fossil fishes were remains + of fishes intended for food, but spoiled and thrown away by travellers; + that the fossil shells were accidentally dropped by crusaders and pilgrims + returning from the Holy Land; and that the fossil bones found between + Paris and Etampes were parts of a skeleton belonging to the cabinet of + some ancient philosopher. Through chapter after chapter, Voltaire, obeying + the supposed necessities of his theology, fought desperately the growing + results of the geologic investigations of his time.(159) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (159) See Voltaire, Dissertation sur les Changements arrives dans notre +Globe; also Voltaire, Les Singularities de la Nature, chap. xii; also +Jevons, Principles of Science, vol. ii, p. 328. +</pre> + <p> + But far more prejudicial to Christianity was the continued effort on the + other side to show that the fossils were caused by the Deluge of Noah. + </p> + <p> + No supposition was too violent to support this theory, which was + considered vital to the Bible. By taking the mere husks and rinds of + biblical truth for truth itself, by taking sacred poetry as prose, and by + giving a literal interpretation of it, the followers of Burnet, Whiston, + and Woodward built up systems which bear to real geology much the same + relation that the Christian Topography of Cosmas bears to real geography. + In vain were exhibited the absolute geological, zoological, astronomical + proofs that no universal deluge, or deluge covering any large part of the + earth, had taken place within the last six thousand or sixty thousand + years; in vain did so enlightened a churchman as Bishop Clayton declare + that the Deluge could not have extended beyond that district where Noah + lived before the Flood; in vain did others, like Bishop Croft and Bishop + Stillingfleet, and the nonconformist Matthew Poole, show that the Deluge + might not have been and probably was not universal; in vain was it shown + that, even if there had been a universal deluge, the fossils were not + produced by it: the only answers were the citation of the text, "And all + the high mountains which were under the whole heaven were covered," and, + to clinch the matter, Worthington and men like him insisted that any + argument to show that fossils were not remains of animals drowned at the + Deluge of Noah was "infidelity." In England, France, and Germany, belief + that the fossils were produced by the Deluge of Noah was widely insisted + upon as part of that faith essential to salvation.(160) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (160) For a candid summary of the proofs from geology, astronomy, +and zoology, that the Noachian Deluge was not universally or widely +extended, see McClintock and Strong, Cyclopedia of Biblical Theology +and Ecclesiastical Literature, article Deluge. For general history, see +Lyell, D'Archiac, and Vezian. For special cases showing the bitterness +of the conflict, see the Rev. Mr. Davis's Life of Rev. Dr. Pye Smith, +passim. For a late account, see Prof. Huxley on The Lights of the Church +and the Light of Science, in the Nineteenth Century for July, 1890. +</pre> + <p> + But the steady work of science went on: not all the force of the Church—not + even the splendid engravings in Scheuchzer's Bible—could stop it, + and the foundations of this theological theory began to crumble away. The + process was, indeed, slow; it required a hundred and twenty years for the + searchers of God's truth, as revealed in Nature—such men as Hooke, + Linnaeus, Whitehurst, Daubenton, Cuvier, and William Smith—to push + their works under this fabric of error, and, by statements which could not + be resisted, to undermine it. As we arrive at the beginning of the + nineteenth century, science is becoming irresistible in this field. + Blumenbach, Von Buch, and Schlotheim led the way, but most important on + the Continent was the work of Cuvier. In the early years of the present + century his researches among fossils began to throw new light into the + whole subject of geology. He was, indeed, very conservative, and even more + wary and diplomatic; seeming, like Voltaire, to feel that "among wolves + one must howl a little." It was a time of reaction. Napoleon had made + peace with the Church, and to disturb that peace was akin to treason. By + large but vague concessions Cuvier kept the theologians satisfied, while + he undermined their strongest fortress. The danger was instinctively felt + by some of the champions of the Church, and typical among these was + Chateaubriand, who in his best-known work, once so great, now so little—the + Genius of Christianity—grappled with the questions of creation by + insisting upon a sort of general deception "in the beginning," under which + everything was created by a sudden fiat, but with appearances of + pre-existence. His words are as follows: "It was part of the perfection + and harmony of the nature which was displayed before men's eyes that the + deserted nests of last year's birds should be seen on the trees, and that + the seashore should be covered with shells which had been the abode of + fish, and yet the world was quite new, and nests and shells had never been + inhabited."(161) But the real victory was with Brongniart, who, about + 1820, gave forth his work on fossil plants, and thus built a barrier + against which the enemies of science raged in vain.(162) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (161) Genie du Christianisme, chap.v, pp. 1-14, cited by Reusch, vol. i, +p. 250. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (162) For admirable sketches of Brongniart and other paleobotanists, see +Ward, as above. +</pre> + <p> + Still the struggle was not ended, and, a few years later, a forlorn hope + was led in England by Granville Penn. + </p> + <p> + His fundamental thesis was that "our globe has undergone only two + revolutions, the Creation and the Deluge, and both by the immediate fiat + of the Almighty"; he insisted that the Creation took place in exactly six + days of ordinary time, each made up of "the evening and the morning"; and + he ended with a piece of that peculiar presumption so familiar to the + world, by calling on Cuvier and all other geologists to "ask for the old + paths and walk therein until they shall simplify their system and reduce + their numerous revolutions to the two events or epochs only—the six + days of Creation and the Deluge."(163) The geologists showed no + disposition to yield to this peremptory summons; on the contrary, the + President of the British Geological Society, and even so eminent a + churchman and geologist as Dean Buckland, soon acknowledged that facts + obliged them to give up the theory that the fossils of the coal measures + were deposited at the Deluge of Noah, and to deny that the Deluge was + universal. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (163) See the Works of Granville Penn, vol. ii, p. 273. +</pre> + <p> + The defection of Buckland was especially felt by the orthodox party. His + ability, honesty, and loyalty to his profession, as well as his position + as Canon of Christ Church and Professor of Geology at Oxford, gave him + great authority, which he exerted to the utmost in soothing his brother + ecclesiastics. In his inaugural lecture he had laboured to show that + geology confirmed the accounts of Creation and the Flood as given in + Genesis, and in 1823, after his cave explorations had revealed + overwhelming evidences of the vast antiquity of the earth, he had still + clung to the Flood theory in his Reliquiae Diluvianae. + </p> + <p> + This had not, indeed, fully satisfied the anti-scientific party, but as a + rule their attacks upon him took the form not so much of abuse as of + humorous disparagement. An epigram by Shuttleworth, afterward Bishop of + Chichester, in imitation of Pope's famous lines upon Newton, ran as + follows: + </p> + <p> + "Some doubts were once expressed about the Flood: Buckland arose, and all + was clear as mud." + </p> + <p> + On his leaving Oxford for a journey to southern Europe, Dean Gaisford was + heard to exclaim: "Well, Buckland is gone to Italy; so, thank God, we + shall have no more of this geology!" + </p> + <p> + Still there was some comfort as long as Buckland held to the Deluge + theory; but, on his surrender, the combat deepened: instead of epigrams + and caricatures came bitter attacks, and from the pulpit and press came + showers of missiles. The worst of these were hurled at Lyell. As we have + seen, he had published in 1830 his Principles of Geology. Nothing could + have been more cautious. It simply gave an account of the main discoveries + up to that time, drawing the necessary inferences with plain yet + convincing logic, and it remains to this day one of those works in which + the Anglo-Saxon race may most justly take pride,—one of the + land-marks in the advance of human thought. + </p> + <p> + But its tendency was inevitably at variance with the Chaldean and other + ancient myths and legends regarding the Creation and Deluge which the + Hebrews had received from the older civilizations among their neighbours, + and had incorporated into the sacred books which they transmitted to the + modern world; it was therefore extensively "refuted." + </p> + <p> + Theologians and men of science influenced by them insisted that his + minimizing of geological changes, and his laying stress on the gradual + action of natural causes still in force, endangered the sacred record of + Creation and left no place for miraculous intervention; and when it was + found that he had entirely cast aside their cherished idea that the great + geological changes of the earth's surface and the multitude of fossil + remains were due to the Deluge of Noah, and had shown that a far longer + time was demanded for Creation than any which could possibly be deduced + from the Old Testament genealogies and chronicles, orthodox indignation + burst forth violently; eminent dignitaries of the Church attacked him + without mercy and for a time he was under social ostracism. + </p> + <p> + As this availed little, an effort was made on the scientific side to crush + him beneath the weighty authority of Cuvier; but the futility of this + effort was evident when it was found that thinking men would no longer + listen to Cuvier and persisted in listening to Lyell. The great orthodox + text-book, Cuvier's Theory of the Earth, became at once so discredited in + the estimation of men of science that no new edition of it was called for, + while Lyell's work speedily ran through twelve editions and remained a + firm basis of modern thought.(164) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (164) For Buckland and the various forms of attack upon him, see Gordon, +Life of Buckland, especially pp. 10, 26, 136. For the attack on Lyell +and his book, see Huxley, The Lights of the Church and the Light of +Science. +</pre> + <p> + As typical of his more moderate opponents we may take Fairholme, who in + 1837 published his Mosaic Deluge, and argued that no early convulsions of + the earth, such as those supposed by geologists, could have taken place, + because there could have been no deluge "before moral guilt could possibly + have been incurred"—that is to say, before the creation of mankind. + In touching terms he bewailed the defection of the President of the + Geological Society and Dean Buckland—protesting against geologists + who "persist in closing their eyes upon the solemn declarations of the + Almighty" + </p> + <p> + Still the geologists continued to seek truth: the germs planted especially + by William Smith, "the Father of English Geology" were developed by a + noble succession of investigators, and the victory was sure. Meanwhile + those theologians who felt that denunciation of science as "godless" could + accomplish little, laboured upon schemes for reconciling geology with + Genesis. Some of these show amazing ingenuity, but an eminent religious + authority, going over them with great thoroughness, has well characterized + them as "daring and fanciful." Such attempts have been variously + classified, but the fact regarding them all is that each mixes up more or + less of science with more or less of Scripture, and produces a result more + or less absurd. Though a few men here and there have continued these + exercises, the capitulation of the party which set the literal account of + the Deluge of Noah against the facts revealed by geology was at last + clearly made.(165) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (165) For Fairholme, see his Mosaic Deluge, London, 1837, p. 358. For a +very just characterization of various schemes of "reconciliation," see +Shields, The Final Philosophy, p. 340. +</pre> + <p> + One of the first evidences of the completeness of this surrender has been + so well related by the eminent physiologist, Dr. W. B. Carpenter, that it + may best be given in his own words: "You are familiar with a book of + considerable value, Dr. W. Smith's Dictionary of the Bible. I happened to + know the influences under which that dictionary was framed. The idea of + the publisher and of the editor was to give as much scholarship and such + results of modern criticism as should be compatible with a very judicious + conservatism. There was to be no objection to geology, but the + universality of the Deluge was to be strictly maintained. The editor + committed the article Deluge to a man of very considerable ability, but + when the article came to him he found that it was so excessively heretical + that he could not venture to put it in. There was not time for a second + article under that head, and if you look in that dictionary you will find + under the word Deluge a reference to Flood. Before Flood came, a second + article had been commissioned from a source that was believed safely + conservative; but when the article came in it was found to be worse than + the first. A third article was then commissioned, and care was taken to + secure its 'safety.' If you look for the word Flood in the dictionary, you + will find a reference to Noah. Under that name you will find an article + written by a distinguished professor of Cambridge, of which I remember + that Bishop Colenso said to me at the time, 'In a very guarded way the + writer concedes the whole thing.' You will see by this under what trammels + scientific thought has laboured in this department of inquiry."(166) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (166) See Official Report of the National Conference of Unitarian and +other Christian Churches held at Saratoga, 1882, p. 97. +</pre> + <p> + A similar surrender was seen when from a new edition of Horne's + Introduction to the Scriptures, the standard textbook of orthodoxy, its + accustomed use of fossils to prove the universality of the Deluge was + quietly dropped.(167) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (167) This was about 1856; see Tylor, Early History of Mankind, p. 329. +</pre> + <p> + A like capitulation in the United States was foreshadowed in 1841, when an + eminent Professor of Biblical Literature and interpretation in the most + important theological seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Dr. + Samuel Turner, showed his Christian faith and courage by virtually + accepting the new view; and the old contention was utterly cast away by + the thinking men of another great religious body when, at a later period, + two divines among the most eminent for piety and learning in the Methodist + Episcopal Church inserted in the Biblical Cyclopaedia, published under + their supervision, a candid summary of the proofs from geology, astronomy, + and zoology that the Deluge of Noah was not universal, or even widely + extended, and this without protest from any man of note in any branch of + the American Church.(168) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (168) For Dr. Turner, see his Companion to the Book of Genesis, London +and New York, 1841, pp. 216-219. For McClintock and Strong, see their +Cyclopaedia of Biblical Knowledge, etc., article Deluge. For similar +surrenders of the Deluge in various other religious encyclopedias and +commentaries, see Huxley, Essays on controverted questions, chap. xiii. +</pre> + <p> + The time when the struggle was relinquished by enlightened theologians of + the Roman Catholic Church may be fixed at about 1862, when Reusch, + Professor of Theology at Bonn, in his work on The Bible and Nature, cast + off the old diluvial theory and all its supporters, accepting the + conclusions of science.(169) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (169) See Reusch, Bibel und Natur, chap. xxi. +</pre> + <p> + But, though the sacred theory with the Deluge of Noah as a universal + solvent for geological difficulties was evidently dying, there still + remained in various quarters a touching fidelity to it. In Roman Catholic + countries the old theory was widely though quietly cherished, and taught + from the religious press, the pulpit, and the theological professor's + chair. Pope Pius IX was doubtless in sympathy with this feeling when, + about 1850, he forbade the scientific congress of Italy to meet at + Bologna.(170) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (170) See Whiteside, Italy in the Nineteenth Century, vol. iii, chap. +xiv. +</pre> + <p> + In 1856 Father Debreyne congratulated the theologians of France on their + admirable attitude: "Instinctively," he says, "they still insist upon + deriving the fossils from Noah's Flood."(171) In 1875 the Abbe Choyer + published at Paris and Angers a text-book widely approved by Church + authorities, in which he took similar ground; and in 1877 the Jesuit + father Bosizio published at Mayence a treatise on Geology and the Deluge, + endeavouring to hold the world to the old solution of the problem, + allowing, indeed, that the "days" of Creation were long periods, but + making atonement for this concession by sneers at Darwin.(172) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (171) See Zoeckler, vol. ii, p. 472. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (172) See Zoeckler, vol. ii, p. 478, and Bosizio, Geologie und die +Sundfluth, Mayence, 1877, preface, p. xiv. +</pre> + <p> + In the Russo-Greek Church, in 1869, Archbishop Macarius, of Lithuania, + urged the necessity of believing that Creation in six days of ordinary + time and the Deluge of Noah are the only causes of all that geology seeks + to explain; and, as late as 1876, another eminent theologian of the same + Church went even farther, and refused to allow the faithful to believe + that any change had taken place since "the beginning" mentioned in + Genesis, when the strata of the earth were laid, tilted, and twisted, and + the fossils scattered among them by the hand of the Almighty during six + ordinary days.(173) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (173) See Zoeckler, vol. ii, p. 472, 571, and elsewhere; also citations +in Reusch and Shields. +</pre> + <p> + In the Lutheran branch of the Protestant Church we also find echoes of the + old belief. Keil, eminent in scriptural interpretation at the University + of Dorpat, gave forth in 1860 a treatise insisting that geology is + rendered futile and its explanations vain by two great facts: the Curse + which drove Adam and Eve out of Eden, and the Flood that destroyed all + living things save Noah, his family, and the animals in the ark. In 1867, + Phillippi, and in 1869, Dieterich, both theologians of eminence, took + virtually the same ground in Germany, the latter attempting to beat back + the scientific hosts with a phrase apparently pithy, but really hollow—the + declaration that "modern geology observes what is, but has no right to + judge concerning the beginning of things." As late as 1876, Zugler took a + similar view, and a multitude of lesser lights, through pulpit and press, + brought these antiscientific doctrines to bear upon the people at large—the + only effect being to arouse grave doubts regarding Christianity among + thoughtful men, and especially among young men, who naturally distrusted a + cause using such weapons. + </p> + <p> + For just at this time the traditional view of the Deluge received its + death-blow, and in a manner entirely unexpected. By the investigations of + George Smith among the Assyrian tablets of the British Museum, in 1872, + and by his discoveries just afterward in Assyria, it was put beyond a + reasonable doubt that a great mass of accounts in Genesis are simply + adaptations of earlier and especially of Chaldean myths and legends. While + this proved to be the fact as regards the accounts of Creation and the + fall of man, it was seen to be most strikingly so as regards the Deluge. + The eleventh of the twelve tablets, on which the most important of these + inscriptions was found, was almost wholly preserved, and it revealed in + this legend, dating from a time far earlier than that of Moses, such + features peculiar to the childhood of the world as the building of the + great ship or ark to escape the flood, the careful caulking of its seams, + the saving of a man beloved of Heaven, his selecting and taking with him + into the vessel animals of all sorts in couples, the impressive final + closing of the door, the sending forth different birds as the flood + abated, the offering of sacrifices when the flood had subsided, the joy of + the Divine Being who had caused the flood as the odour of the sacrifice + reached his nostrils; while throughout all was shown that partiality for + the Chaldean sacred number seven which appears so constantly in the + Genesis legends and throughout the Hebrew sacred books. + </p> + <p> + Other devoted scholars followed in the paths thus opened—Sayce in + England, Lenormant in France, Schrader in Germany—with the result + that the Hebrew account of the Deluge, to which for ages theologians had + obliged all geological research to conform, was quietly relegated, even by + most eminent Christian scholars, to the realm of myth and legend.(174) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (174) For George Smith, see his Chaldean Account of Genesis, New York, +1876, especially pp. 36, 263, 286; also his special work on the subject. +See also Lenormant, Les Origins de l'Histoire, Paris, 1880, chap. viii. +For Schrader, see his The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Testament, +Whitehouse's translation, London, 1885, vol. i, pp. 47-49 and 58-60, and +elsewhere. +</pre> + <p> + Sundry feeble attempts to break the force of this discovery, and an + evidently widespread fear to have it known, have certainly impaired not a + little the legitimate influence of the Christian clergy. + </p> + <p> + And yet this adoption of Chaldean myths into the Hebrew Scriptures + furnishes one of the strongest arguments for the value of our Bible as a + record of the upward growth of man; for, while the Chaldean legend + primarily ascribes the Deluge to the mere arbitrary caprice of one among + many gods (Bel), the Hebrew development of the legend ascribes it to the + justice, the righteousness, of the Supreme God; thus showing the evolution + of a higher and nobler sentiment which demanded a moral cause adequate to + justify such a catastrophe. + </p> + <p> + Unfortunately, thus far, save in a few of the broader and nobler minds + among the clergy, the policy of ignoring such new revelations has + prevailed, and the results of this policy, both in Roman Catholic and in + Protestant countries, are not far to seek. What the condition of thought + is among the middle classes of France and Italy needs not to be stated + here. In Germany, as a typical fact, it may be mentioned that there was in + the year 1881 church accommodation in the city of Berlin for but two per + cent of the population, and that even this accommodation was more than was + needed. This fact is not due to the want of a deep religious spirit among + the North Germans: no one who has lived among them can doubt the existence + of such a spirit; but it is due mainly to the fact that, while the simple + results of scientific investigation have filtered down among the people at + large, the dominant party in the Lutheran Church has steadily refused to + recognise this fact, and has persisted in imposing on Scripture the + fetters of literal and dogmatic interpretation which Germany has largely + outgrown. A similar danger threatens every other country in which the + clergy pursue a similar policy. No thinking man, whatever may be his + religious views, can fail to regret this. A thoughtful, reverent, + enlightened clergy is a great blessing to any country, and anything which + undermines their legitimate work of leading men out of the worship of + material things to the consideration of that which is highest is a vast + misfortune.(175) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (175) For the foregoing statements regarding Germany the writer relies +on his personal observation as a student at the University of Berlin in +1856, as a traveller at various periods afterward, and as Minister of +the United States in 1879, 1880, and 1881. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0028" id="link2H_4_0028"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IV. FINAL EFFORTS AT COMPROMISE.—THE VICTORY OF SCIENCE COMPLETE. + </h2> + <p> + Before concluding, it may be instructive to note a few especially + desperate attempts at truces or compromises, such as always appear when + the victory of any science has become absolutely sure. Typical among the + earliest of these may be mentioned the effort of Carl von Raumer in 1819. + With much pretension to scientific knowledge, but with aspirations bounded + by the limits of Prussian orthodoxy, he made a laboured attempt to produce + a statement which, by its vagueness, haziness, and "depth," should obscure + the real questions at issue. This statement appeared in the shape of an + argument, used by Bertrand and others in the previous century, to prove + that fossil remains of plants in the coal measures had never existed as + living plants, but had been simply a "result of the development of + imperfect plant embryos"; and the same misty theory was suggested to + explain the existence of fossil animals without supposing the epochs and + changes required by geological science. + </p> + <p> + In 1837 Wagner sought to uphold this explanation; but it was so clearly a + mere hollow phrase, unable to bear the weight of the facts to be accounted + for, that it was soon given up. + </p> + <p> + Similar attempts were made throughout Europe, the most noteworthy + appearing in England. In 1853 was issued an anonymous work having as its + title A Brief and Complete Refutation of the Anti-Scriptural Theory of + Geologists: the author having revived an old idea, and put a spark of life + into it—this idea being that "all the organisms found in the depths + of the earth were made on the first of the six creative days, as models + for the plants and animals to be created on the third, fifth, and sixth + days."(176) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (176) See Zoeckler, vol. ii, p. 475. +</pre> + <p> + But while these attempts to preserve the old theory as to fossil remains + of lower animals were thus pressed, there appeared upon the geological + field a new scientific column far more terrible to the old doctrines than + any which had been seen previously. + </p> + <p> + For, just at the close of the first quarter of the nineteenth century, + geologists began to examine the caves and beds of drift in various parts + of the world; and within a few years from that time a series of + discoveries began in France, in Belgium, in England, in Brazil, in Sicily, + in India, in Egypt, and in America, which established the fact that a + period of time much greater than any which had before been thought of had + elapsed since the first human occupation of the earth. The chronologies of + Archbishop Usher, Petavius, Bossuet, and the other great authorities on + which theology had securely leaned, were found worthless. It was clearly + seen that, no matter how well based upon the Old Testament genealogies and + lives of the patriarchs, all these systems must go for nothing. The most + conservative geologists were gradually obliged to admit that man had been + upon the earth not merely six thousand, or sixty thousand, or one hundred + and sixty thousand years. And when, in 1863, Sir Charles Lyell, in his + book on The Antiquity of Man, retracted solemnly his earlier view—yielding + with a reluctance almost pathetic, but with a thoroughness absolutely + convincing—the last stronghold of orthodoxy in this field fell.(177) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (177) See Prof. Marsh's address as President of the Society for the +Advancement of Science, in 1879; and for a development of the matter, +see the chapters on The Antiquity of Man and Egyptology and the Fall of +Man and Anthropology, in this work. +</pre> + <p> + The supporters of a theory based upon the letter of Scripture, who had so + long taken the offensive, were now obliged to fight upon the defensive and + at fearful odds. Various lines of defence were taken; but perhaps the most + pathetic effort was that made in the year 1857, in England, by Gosse. As a + naturalist he had rendered great services to zoological science, but he + now concentrated his energies upon one last effort to save the literal + interpretation of Genesis and the theological structure built upon it. In + his work entitled Omphalos he developed the theory previously urged by + Granville Penn, and asserted a new principle called "prochronism." In + accordance with this, all things were created by the Almighty hand + literally within the six days, each made up of "the evening and the + morning," and each great branch of creation was brought into existence in + an instant. Accepting a declaration of Dr. Ure, that "neither reason nor + revelation will justify us in extending the origin of the material system + beyond six thousand years from our own days," Gosse held that all the + evidences of convulsive changes and long epochs in strata, rocks, + minerals, and fossils are simply "APPEARANCES"—only that and nothing + more. Among these mere "appearances," all created simultaneously, were the + glacial furrows and scratches on rocks, the marks of retreat on rocky + masses, as at Niagara, the tilted and twisted strata, the piles of lava + from extinct volcanoes, the fossils of every sort in every part of the + earth, the foot-tracks of birds and reptiles, the half-digested remains of + weaker animals found in the fossilized bodies of the stronger, the marks + of hyenas' teeth on fossilized bones found in various caves, and even the + skeleton of the Siberian mammoth at St. Petersburg with lumps of flesh + bearing the marks of wolves' teeth—all these, with all gaps and + imperfections, he urged mankind to believe came into being in an instant. + The preface of the work is especially touching, and it ends with the + prayer that science and Scripture may be reconciled by his theory, and + "that the God of truth will deign so to use it, and if he do, to him be + all the glory."(177) At the close of the whole book Gosse declared: "The + field is left clear and undisputed for the one witness on the opposite + side, whose testimony is as follows: 'In six days Jehovah made heaven and + earth, the sea, and all that in them is.'" This quotation he placed in + capital letters, as the final refutation of all that the science of + geology had built. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (177) See Gosse, Omphalos, London, 1857, p. 5, and passim; and for a +passage giving the keynote of the whole, with a most farcical note on +coprolites, see pp. 353, 354. +</pre> + <p> + In other parts of Europe desperate attempts were made even later to save + the letter of our sacred books by the revival of a theory in some respects + more striking. To shape this theory to recent needs, vague reminiscences + of a text in Job regarding fire beneath the earth, and vague conceptions + of speculations made by Humboldt and Laplace, were mingled with Jewish + tradition. Out of the mixture thus obtained Schubert developed the idea + that the Satanic "principalities and powers" formerly inhabiting our + universe plunged it into the chaos from which it was newly created by a + process accurately described in Genesis. Rougemont made the earth one of + the "morning stars" of Job, reduced to chaos by Lucifer and his followers, + and thence developed in accordance with the nebular hypothesis. Kurtz + evolved from this theory an opinion that the geological disturbances were + caused by the opposition of the devil to the rescue of our universe from + chaos by the Almighty. Delitzsch put a similar idea into a more scholastic + jargon; but most desperate of all were the statements of Dr. Anton + Westermeyer, of Munich, in The Old Testament vindicated from Modern + Infidel Objections. The following passage will serve to show his ideas: + "By the fructifying brooding of the Divine Spirit on the waters of the + deep, creative forces began to stir; the devils who inhabited the primeval + darkness and considered it their own abode saw that they were to be driven + from their possessions, or at least that their place of habitation was to + be contracted, and they therefore tried to frustrate God's plan of + creation and exert all that remained to them of might and power to hinder + or at least to mar the new creation." So came into being "the horrible and + destructive monsters, these caricatures and distortions of creation," of + which we have fossil remains. Dr. Westermeyer goes on to insist that + "whole generations called into existence by God succumbed to the + corruption of the devil, and for that reason had to be destroyed"; and + that "in the work of the six days God caused the devil to feel his power + in all earnest, and made Satan's enterprise appear miserable and + vain."(178) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (178) See Shields's Final Philosophy, pp. 340 et seq., and Reusch's +Nature and the Bible (English translation, 1886), vol. i, pp. 318-320. +</pre> + <p> + Such was the last important assault upon the strongholds of geological + science in Germany; and, in view of this and others of the same kind, it + is little to be wondered at that when, in 1870, Johann Silberschlag made + an attempt to again base geology upon the Deluge of Noah, he found such + difficulties that, in a touching passage, he expressed a desire to get + back to the theory that fossils were "sports of Nature."(179) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (179) See Reusch, vol. i, p. 264. +</pre> + <p> + But the most noted among efforts to keep geology well within the letter of + Scripture is of still more recent date. In the year 1885 Mr. Gladstone + found time, amid all his labours and cares as the greatest parliamentary + leader in England, to take the field in the struggle for the letter of + Genesis against geology. + </p> + <p> + On the face of it his effort seemed Quixotic, for he confessed at the + outset that in science he was "utterly destitute of that kind of knowledge + which carries authority," and his argument soon showed that this + confession was entirely true. + </p> + <p> + But he had some other qualities of which much might be expected: great + skill in phrase-making, great shrewdness in adapting the meanings of + single words to conflicting necessities in discussion, wonderful power in + erecting showy structures of argument upon the smallest basis of fact, and + a facility almost preternatural in "explaining away" troublesome + realities. So striking was his power in this last respect, that a humorous + London chronicler once advised a bigamist, as his only hope, to induce Mr. + Gladstone to explain away one of his wives. + </p> + <p> + At the basis of this theologico-geological structure Mr. Gladstone placed + what he found in the text of Genesis: "A grand fourfold division" of + animated Nature "set forth in an orderly succession of times." And he + arranged this order and succession of creation as follows: "First, the + water population; secondly, the air population; thirdly, the land + population of animals; fourthly, the land population consummated in man." + </p> + <p> + His next step was to slide in upon this basis the apparently harmless + proposition that this division and sequence "is understood to have been so + affirmed in our time by natural science that it may be taken as a + demonstrated conclusion and established fact." + </p> + <p> + Finally, upon these foundations he proceeded to build an argument out of + the coincidences thus secured between the record in the Hebrew sacred + books and the truths revealed by science as regards this order and + sequence, and he easily arrived at the desired conclusion with which he + crowned the whole structure, namely, as regards the writer of Genesis, + that "his knowledge was divine."(180) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (180) See Mr. Gladstone's Dawn of Creation and Worship, a reply to Dr. +Reville, in the Nineteenth Century for November, 1885. +</pre> + <p> + Such was the skeleton of the structure; it was abundantly decorated with + the rhetoric in which Mr. Gladstone is so skilful an artificer, and it + towered above "the average man" as a structure beautiful and invincible—like + some Chinese fortress in the nineteenth century, faced with porcelain and + defended with crossbows. + </p> + <p> + Its strength was soon seen to be unreal. In an essay admirable in its + temper, overwhelming in its facts, and absolutely convincing in its + argument, Prof. Huxley, late President of the Royal Society, and doubtless + the most eminent contemporary authority on the scientific questions + concerned, took up the matter. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Gladstone's first proposition, that the sacred writings give us a + great "fourfold division" created "in an orderly succession of times," + Prof. Huxley did not presume to gainsay. + </p> + <p> + As to Mr. Gladstone's second proposition, that "this great fourfold + division... created in an orderly succession of times... has been so + affirmed in our own time by natural science that it may be taken as a + demonstrated conclusion and established fact," Prof. Huxley showed that, + as a matter of fact, no such "fourfold division" and "orderly succession" + exist; that, so far from establishing Mr. Gladstone's assumption that the + population of water, air, and land followed each other in the order given, + "all the evidence we possess goes to prove that they did not"; that the + distribution of fossils through the various strata proves that some land + animals originated before sea animals; that there has been a mixing of + sea, land, and air "population" utterly destructive to the "great fourfold + division" and to the creation "in an orderly succession of times"; that, + so far is the view presented in the sacred text, as stated by Mr. + Gladstone, from having been "so affirmed in our own time by natural + science, that it may be taken as a demonstrated conclusion and established + fact" that Mr. Gladstone's assertion is "directly contradictory to facts + known to every one who is acquainted with the elements of natural + science"; that Mr. Gladstone's only geological authority, Cuvier, had died + more than fifty years before, when geological science was in its infancy + (and he might have added, when it was necessary to make every possible + concession to the Church); and, finally, he challenged Mr. Gladstone to + produce any contemporary authority in geological science who would support + his so-called scriptural view. And when, in a rejoinder, Mr. Gladstone + attempted to support his view on the authority of Prof. Dana, Prof. Huxley + had no difficulty in showing from Prof. Dana's works that Mr. Gladstone's + inference was utterly unfounded. But, while the fabric reared by Mr. + Gladstone had been thus undermined by Huxley on the scientific side, + another opponent began an attack from the biblical side. The Rev. Canon + Driver, professor at Mr. Gladstone's own University of Oxford, took up the + question in the light of scriptural interpretation. In regard to the + comparative table drawn up by Sir J. W. Dawson, showing the supposed + correspondence between the scriptural and the geological order of + creation, Canon Driver said: "The two series are evidently at variance. + The geological record contains no evidence of clearly defined periods + corresponding to the 'days' of Genesis. In Genesis, vegetation is complete + two days before animal life appears. Geology shows that they appear + simultaneously—even if animal life does not appear first. In + Genesis, birds appear together with aquatic creatures, and precede all + land animals; according to the evidence of geology, birds are unknown till + a period much later than that at which aquatic creatures (including fishes + and amphibia) abound, and they are preceded by numerous species of land + animals—in particular, by insects and other 'creeping things.'" Of + the Mosaic account of the existence of vegetation before the creation of + the sun, Canon Driver said, "No reconciliation of this representation with + the data of science has yet been found"; and again: "From all that has + been said, however reluctant we may be to make the admission, only one + conclusion seems possible. Read without prejudice or bias, the narrative + of Genesis i, creates an impression at variance with the facts revealed by + science." The eminent professor ends by saying that the efforts at + reconciliation are "different modes of obliterating the characteristic + features of Genesis, and of reading into it a view which it does not + express." + </p> + <p> + Thus fell Mr. Gladstone's fabric of coincidences between the "great + fourfold division" in Genesis and the facts ascertained by geology. Prof. + Huxley had shattered the scientific parts of the structure, Prof. Driver + had removed its biblical foundations, and the last great fortress of the + opponents of unfettered scientific investigation was in ruins. + </p> + <p> + In opposition to all such attempts we may put a noble utterance by a + clergyman who has probably done more to save what is essential in + Christianity among English-speaking people than any other ecclesiastic of + his time. The late Dean of Westminster, Dr. Arthur Stanley, was widely + known and beloved on both continents. In his memorial sermon after the + funeral of Sir Charles Lyell he said: "It is now clear to diligent + students of the Bible that the first and second chapters of Genesis + contain two narratives of the creation side by side, differing from each + other in almost every particular of time and place and order. It is well + known that, when the science of geology first arose, it was involved in + endless schemes of attempted reconciliation with the letter of Scripture. + There were, there are perhaps still, two modes of reconciliation of + Scripture and science, which have been each in their day attempted, AND + EACH HAS TOTALLY AND DESERVEDLY FAILED. One is the endeavour to wrest the + words of the Bible from their natural meaning and FORCE IT TO SPEAK THE + LANGUAGE OF SCIENCE." And again, speaking of the earliest known example, + which was the interpolation of the word "not" in Leviticus xi, 6, he + continues: "This is the earliest instance of THE FALSIFICATION OF + SCRIPTURE TO MEET THE DEMANDS OF SCIENCE; and it has been followed in + later times by the various efforts which have been made to twist the + earlier chapters of the book of Genesis into APPARENT agreement with the + last results of geology—representing days not to be days, morning + and evening not to be morning and evening, the Deluge not to be the + Deluge, and the ark not to be the ark." + </p> + <p> + After a statement like this we may fitly ask, Which is the more likely to + strengthen Christianity for its work in the twentieth century which we are + now about to enter—a large, manly, honest, fearless utterance like + this of Arthur Stanley, or hair-splitting sophistries, bearing in their + every line the germs of failure, like those attempted by Mr. Gladstone? + </p> + <p> + The world is finding that the scientific revelation of creation is ever + more and more in accordance with worthy conceptions of that great Power + working in and through the universe. More and more it is seen that + inspiration has never ceased, and that its prophets and priests are not + those who work to fit the letter of its older literature to the needs of + dogmas and sects, but those, above all others, who patiently, fearlessly, + and reverently devote themselves to the search for truth as truth, in the + faith that there is a Power in the universe wise enough to make + truth-seeking safe and good enough to make truth-telling useful.(181) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (181) For the Huxley-Gladstone controversy, see The Nineteenth Century +for 1885-'86. For Canon Driver, see his article, The Cosmogony of +Genesis, in The Expositor for January, 1886. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VI. THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN EGYPTOLOGY, AND ASSYRIOLOGY. + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0030" id="link2H_4_0030"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I. THE SACRED CHRONOLOGY. + </h2> + <p> + In the great ranges of investigation which bear most directly upon the + origin of man, there are two in which Science within the last few years + has gained final victories. The significance of these in changing, and + ultimately in reversing, one of the greatest currents of theological + thought, can hardly be overestimated; not even the tide set in motion by + Cusa, Copernicus, and Galileo was more powerful to bring in a new epoch of + belief. + </p> + <p> + The first of these conquests relates to the antiquity of man on the earth. + </p> + <p> + The fathers of the early Christian Church, receiving all parts of our + sacred books as equally inspired, laid little, if any, less stress on the + myths, legends, genealogies, and tribal, family, and personal traditions + contained in the Old and the New Testaments, than upon the most powerful + appeals, the most instructive apologues, and the most lofty poems of + prophets, psalmists, and apostles. As to the age of our planet and the + life of man upon it, they found in the Bible a carefully recorded series + of periods, extending from Adam to the building of the Temple at + Jerusalem, the length of each period being explicitly given. + </p> + <p> + Thus they had a biblical chronology—full, consecutive, and definite—extending + from the first man created to an event of known date well within + ascertained profane history; as a result, the early Christian commentators + arrived at conclusions varying somewhat, but in the main agreeing. Some, + like Origen, Eusebius, Lactantius, Clement of Alexandria, and the great + fathers generally of the first three centuries, dwelling especially upon + the Septuagint version of the Scriptures, thought that man's creation took + place about six thousand years before the Christian era. Strong + confirmation of this view was found in a simple piece of purely + theological reasoning: for, just as the seven candlesticks of the + Apocalypse were long held to prove the existence of seven heavenly bodies + revolving about the earth, so it was felt that the six days of creation + prefigured six thousand years during which the earth in its first form was + to endure; and that, as the first Adam came on the sixth day, Christ, the + second Adam, had come at the sixth millennial period. Theophilus, Bishop + of Antioch, in the second century clinched this argument with the text, + "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years." + </p> + <p> + On the other hand, Eusebius and St. Jerome, dwelling more especially upon + the Hebrew text, which we are brought up to revere, thought that man's + origin took place at a somewhat shorter period before the Christian era; + and St. Jerome's overwhelming authority made this the dominant view + throughout western Europe during fifteen centuries. + </p> + <p> + The simplicity of these great fathers as regards chronology is especially + reflected from the tables of Eusebius. In these, Moses, Joshua, and + Bacchus,—Deborah, Orpheus, and the Amazons,—Abimelech, the + Sphinx, and Oedipus, appear together as personages equally real, and their + positions in chronology equally ascertained. + </p> + <p> + At times great bitterness was aroused between those holding the longer and + those holding the shorter chronology, but after all the difference between + them, as we now see, was trivial; and it may be broadly stated that in the + early Church, "always, everywhere, and by all," it was held as certain, + upon the absolute warrant of Scripture, that man was created from four to + six thousand years before the Christian era. + </p> + <p> + To doubt this, and even much less than this, was to risk damnation. St. + Augustine insisted that belief in the antipodes and in the longer duration + of the earth than six thousand years were deadly heresies, equally hostile + to Scripture. Philastrius, the friend of St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, + whose fearful catalogue of heresies served as a guide to intolerance + throughout the Middle Ages, condemned with the same holy horror those who + expressed doubt as to the orthodox number of years since the beginning of + the world, and those who doubted an earthquake to be the literal voice of + an angry God, or who questioned the plurality of the heavens, or who + gainsaid the statement that God brings out the stars from his treasures + and hangs them up in the solid firmament above the earth every night. + </p> + <p> + About the beginning of the seventh century Isidore of Seville, the great + theologian of his time, took up the subject. He accepted the dominant view + not only of Hebrew but of all other chronologies, without anything like + real criticism. The childlike faith of his system may be imagined from his + summaries which follow. He tells us: + </p> + <p> + "Joseph lived one hundred and five years. Greece began to cultivate + grain." + </p> + <p> + "The Jews were in slavery in Egypt one hundred and forty-four years. Atlas + discovered astrology." + </p> + <p> + "Joshua ruled for twenty-seven years. Ericthonius yoked horses together." + </p> + <p> + "Othniel, forty years. Cadmus introduced letters into Greece." + </p> + <p> + "Deborah, forty years. Apollo discovered the art of medicine and invented + the cithara." + </p> + <p> + "Gideon, forty years. Mercury invented the lyre and gave it to Orpheus." + </p> + <p> + Reasoning in this general way, Isidore kept well under the longer date; + and, the great theological authority of southern Europe having thus + spoken, the question was virtually at rest throughout Christendom for + nearly a hundred years. + </p> + <p> + Early in the eighth century the Venerable Bede took up the problem. + Dwelling especially upon the received Hebrew text of the Old Testament, he + soon entangled himself in very serious difficulties; but, in spite of the + great fathers of the first three centuries, he reduced the antiquity of + man on the earth by nearly a thousand years, and, in spite of mutterings + against him as coming dangerously near a limit which made the theological + argument from the six days of creation to the six ages of the world look + doubtful, his authority had great weight, and did much to fix western + Europe in its allegiance to the general system laid down by Eusebius and + Jerome. + </p> + <p> + In the twelfth century this belief was re-enforced by a tide of thought + from a very different quarter. Rabbi Moses Maimonides and other Jewish + scholars, by careful study of the Hebrew text, arrived at conclusions + diminishing the antiquity of man still further, and thus gave strength + throughout the Middle Ages to the shorter chronology: it was incorporated + into the sacred science of Christianity; and Vincent of Beauvais, in his + great Speculum Historiale, forming part of that still more enormous work + intended to sum up all the knowledge possessed by the ages of faith, + placed the creation of man at about four thousand years before our + era.(182) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (182) For a table summing up the periods, from Adam to the building of +the Temple, explicitly given in the Scriptures, see the admirable paper +on The Pope and the Bible, in The Contemporary Review for April, 1893. +For the date of man's creation as given by leading chronologists in +various branches of the Church, see L'Art de Verifier les Dates, +Paris, 1819, vol. i, pp. 27 et seq. In this edition there are sundry +typographical errors; compare with Wallace, True Age of the World, +London, 1844. As to preference for the longer computation by the fathers +of the Church, see Clinton, Fasti Hellenici, vol. ii, p. 291. For the +sacred significance of the six days of creation in ascertaining +the antiquity of man, see especially Eichen, Geschichte der +mittelalterlichen Weltanschauung; also Wallace, True Age of the World, +pp. 2,3. For the views of St. Augustine, see Topinard, Anthropologie, +citing the De Civ. Dei., lib. xvi, c. viii, c. x. For the views of +Philastrius, see the De Hoeresibus, c. 102, 112, et passim, in Migne, +tome xii. For Eusebius's simple credulity, see the tables in Palmer's +Egyptian Chronicles, vol. ii, pp. 828, 829. For Bede, see Usher's +Chronologia Sacra, cited in Wallace, True Age of the World, p. 35. For +Isidore of Seville, see the Etymologia, lib. v, c. 39; also lib. iii, in +Migne, tome lxxxii. +</pre> + <p> + At the Reformation this view was not disturbed. The same manner of + accepting the sacred text which led Luther, Melanchthon, and the great + Protestant leaders generally, to oppose the Copernican theory, fixed them + firmly in this biblical chronology; the keynote was sounded for them by + Luther when he said, "We know, on the authority of Moses, that longer ago + than six thousand years the world did not exist." Melanchthon, more exact, + fixed the creation of man at 3963 B.C. + </p> + <p> + But the great Christian scholars continued the old endeavour to make the + time of man's origin more precise: there seems to have been a sort of + fascination in the subject which developed a long array of chronologists, + all weighing the minutest indications in our sacred books, until the + Protestant divine De Vignolles, who had given forty years to the study of + biblical chronology, declared in 1738 that he had gathered no less than + two hundred computations based upon Scripture, and no two alike. + </p> + <p> + As to the Roman Church, about 1580 there was published, by authority of + Pope Gregory XIII, the Roman Martyrology, and this, both as originally + published and as revised in 1640 under Pope Urban VIII, declared that the + creation of man took place 5199 years before Christ. + </p> + <p> + But of all who gave themselves up to these chronological studies, the man + who exerted the most powerful influence upon the dominant nations of + Christendom was Archbishop Usher. In 1650 he published his Annals of the + Ancient and New Testaments, and it at once became the greatest authority + for all English-speaking peoples. Usher was a man of deep and wide + theological learning, powerful in controversy; and his careful conclusion, + after years of the most profound study of the Hebrew Scriptures, was that + man was created 4004 years before the Christian era. His verdict was + widely received as final; his dates were inserted in the margins of the + authorized version of the English Bible, and were soon practically + regarded as equally inspired with the sacred text itself: to question them + seriously was to risk preferment in the Church and reputation in the world + at large. + </p> + <p> + The same adhesion to the Hebrew Scriptures which had influenced Usher + brought leading men of the older Church to the same view: men who would + have burned each other at the stake for their differences on other points, + agreed on this: Melanchthon and Tostatus, Lightfoot and Jansen, Salmeron + and Scaliger, Petavius and Kepler, inquisitors and reformers, Jesuits and + Jansenists, priests and rabbis, stood together in the belief that the + creation of man was proved by Scripture to have taken place between 3900 + and 4004 years before Christ. + </p> + <p> + In spite of the severe pressure of this line of authorities, extending + from St. Jerome and Eusebius to Usher and Petavius, in favour of this + scriptural chronology, even devoted Christian scholars had sometimes felt + obliged to revolt. The first great source of difficulty was increased + knowledge regarding the Egyptian monuments. As far back as the last years + of the sixteenth century Joseph Scaliger had done what he could to lay the + foundations of a more scientific treatment of chronology, insisting + especially that the historical indications in Persia, in Babylon, and + above all in Egypt, should be brought to bear on the question. More than + that, he had the boldness to urge that the chronological indications of + the Hebrew Scriptures should be fully and critically discussed in the + light of Egyptian and other records, without any undue bias from + theological considerations. His idea may well be called inspired; yet it + had little effect as regards a true view of the antiquity of man, even + upon himself, for the theological bias prevailed above all his reasonings, + even in his own mind. Well does a brilliant modern writer declare that, + "among the multitude of strong men in modern times abdicating their reason + at the command of their prejudices, Joseph Scaliger is perhaps the most + striking example." Early in the following century Sir Walter Raleigh, in + his History of the World (1603-1616), pointed out the danger of adhering + to the old system. He, too, foresaw one of the results of modern + investigation, stating it in these words, which have the ring of prophetic + inspiration: "For in Abraham's time all the then known parts of the world + were developed.... Egypt had many magnificent cities,... and these not + built with sticks, but of hewn stone,... which magnificence needed a + parent of more antiquity than these other men have supposed." In view of + these considerations Raleigh followed the chronology of the Septuagint + version, which enabled him to give to the human race a few more years than + were usually allowed. + </p> + <p> + About the middle of the seventeenth century Isaac Vossius, one of the most + eminent scholars of Christendom, attempted to bring the prevailing belief + into closer accordance with ascertained facts, but, save by a chosen few, + his efforts were rejected. In some parts of Europe a man holding new views + on chronology was by no means safe from bodily harm. As an example of the + extreme pressure exerted by the old theological system at times upon + honest scholars, we may take the case of La Peyrere, who about the middle + of the seventeenth century put forth his book on the Pre-Adamites—an + attempt to reconcile sundry well-known difficulties in Scripture by + claiming that man existed on earth before the time of Adam. He was taken + in hand at once; great theologians rushed forward to attack him from all + parts of Europe; within fifty years thirty-six different refutations of + his arguments had appeared; the Parliament of Paris burned the book, and + the Grand Vicar of the archdiocese of Mechlin threw him into prison and + kept him there until he was forced, not only to retract his statements, + but to abjure his Protestantism. + </p> + <p> + In England, opposition to the growing truth was hardly less earnest. + Especially strong was Pearson, afterward Master of Trinity and Bishop of + Chester. In his treatise on the Creed, published in 1659, which has + remained a theologic classic, he condemned those who held the earth to be + more than fifty-six hundred years old, insisted that the first man was + created just six days later, declared that the Egyptian records were + forged, and called all Christians to turn from them to "the infallible + annals of the Spirit of God." + </p> + <p> + But, in spite of warnings like these, we see the new idea cropping out in + various parts of Europe. In 1672, Sir John Marsham published a work in + which he showed himself bold and honest. After describing the heathen + sources of Oriental history, he turns to the Christian writers, and, + having used the history of Egypt to show that the great Church authorities + were not exact, he ends one important argument with the following words: + "Thus the most interesting antiquities of Egypt have been involved in the + deepest obscurity by the very interpreters of her chronology, who have + jumbled everything up (qui omnia susque deque permiscuerunt), so as to + make them match with their own reckonings of Hebrew chronology. Truly a + very bad example, and quite unworthy of religious writers." + </p> + <p> + This sturdy protest of Sir John against the dominant system and against + the "jumbling" by which Eusebius had endeavoured to cut down ancient + chronology within safe and sound orthodox limits, had little effect. + Though eminent chronologists of the eighteenth century, like Jackson, + Hales, and Drummond, gave forth multitudes of ponderous volumes pleading + for a period somewhat longer than that generally allowed, and insisting + that the received Hebrew text was grossly vitiated as regards chronology, + even this poor favour was refused them; the mass of believers found it + more comfortable to hold fast the faith committed to them by Usher, and it + remained settled that man was created about four thousand years before our + era. + </p> + <p> + To those who wished even greater precision, Dr. John Lightfoot, + Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, the great rabbinical + scholar of his time, gave his famous demonstration from our sacred books + that "heaven and earth, centre and circumference, were created together, + in the same instant, and clouds full of water," and that "this work took + place and man was created by the Trinity on the twenty-third of October, + 4004 B.C., at nine o'clock in the morning." + </p> + <p> + This tide of theological reasoning rolled on through the eighteenth + century, swollen by the biblical researches of leading commentators, + Catholic and Protestant, until it came in much majesty and force into our + own nineteenth century. At the very beginning of the century it gained new + strength from various great men in the Church, among whom may be + especially named Dr. Adam Clarke, who declared that, "to preclude the + possibility of a mistake, the unerring Spirit of God directed Moses in the + selection of his facts and the ascertaining of his dates." + </p> + <p> + All opposition to the received view seemed broken down, and as late as + 1835—indeed, as late as 1850—came an announcement in the work + of one of the most eminent Egyptologists, Sir J. G. Wilkinson, to the + effect that he had modified the results he had obtained from Egyptian + monuments, in order that his chronology might not interfere with the + received date of the Deluge of Noah.(183) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (183) For Lightfoot, see his Prolegomena relating to the age of the +world at the birth of Christ; see also in the edition of his works, +London, 1822, vol. 4, pp. 64, 112. For Scaliger, see in the De +Emendatione Temporum, 1583; also Mark Pattison, Essays, Oxford, 1889, +vol. i, pp. 162 et seq. For Raleigh's misgivings, see his History of the +World, London, 1614, p. 227, book ii of part i, section 7 of chapter +i; also Clinton's Fasti Hellenici, vol. ii, p. 293. For Usher, see +his Annales Vet. et Nov. Test., London, 1650. For Pearson, see his +Exposition of the Creed, sixth edition, London, 1692, pp. 59 et seq. +For Marsham, see his Chronicus Canon Aegypticus, Ebraicus, Graecus, +et Disquisitiones, London, 1672. For La Peyrere, see especially +Quatrefarges, in Revue de Deux Mondes for 1861; also other chapters in +this work. For Jackson, Hales, and others, see Wallace's True Age of +the World. For Wilkinson, see various editions of his work on Egypt. For +Vignolles, see Leblois, vol. iii, p. 617. As to the declaration in favor +of the recent origin of man, sanctioned by Popes Gregory XIII and Urban +VIII, see Strachius, cited in Wallace, p. 97. For the general agreement +of Church authorities, as stated, see L'Art de Verifier les Dates, as +above. As to difficulties of scriptural chronology, see Ewald, History +of Israel, English translation, London, 1883, pp. 204 et seq. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0031" id="link2H_4_0031"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II. THE NEW CHRONOLOGY. + </h2> + <p> + But all investigators were not so docile as Wilkinson, and there soon came + a new train of scientific thought which rapidly undermined all this + theological chronology. Not to speak of other noted men, we have early in + the present century Young, Champollion, and Rosellini, beginning a new + epoch in the study of the Egyptian monuments. Nothing could be more + cautious than their procedure, but the evidence was soon overwhelming in + favour of a vastly longer existence of man in the Nile Valley than could + be made to agree with even the longest duration then allowed by + theologians. For, in spite of all the suppleness of men like Wilkinson, it + became evident that, whatever system of scriptural chronology was adopted, + Egypt was the seat of a flourishing civilization at a period before the + "Flood of Noah," and that no such flood had ever interrupted it. This was + bad, but worse remained behind: it was soon clear that the civilization of + Egypt began earlier than the time assigned for the creation of man, even + according to the most liberal of the sacred chronologists. + </p> + <p> + As time went on, this became more and more evident. The long duration + assigned to human civilization in the fragments of Manetho, the Egyptian + scribe at Thebes in the third century B.C., was discovered to be more + accordant with truth than the chronologies of the great theologians; and, + as the present century has gone on, scientific results have been reached + absolutely fatal to the chronological view based by the universal Church + upon Scripture for nearly two thousand years. + </p> + <p> + As is well known, the first of the Egyptian kings of whom mention is made + upon the monuments of the Nile Valley is Mena, or Menes. Manetho had given + a statement, according to which Mena must have lived nearly six thousand + years before the Christian era. This was looked upon for a long time as + utterly inadmissible, as it was so clearly at variance with the chronology + of our own sacred books; but, as time went on, large fragments of the + original work of Manetho were more carefully studied and distinguished + from corrupt transcriptions, the lists of kings at Karnak, Sacquarah, and + the two temples at Abydos were brought to light, and the lists of court + architects were discovered. Among all these monuments the scholar who + visits Egypt is most impressed by the sculptured tablets giving the lists + of kings. Each shows the monarch of the period doing homage to the long + line of his ancestors. Each of these sculptured monarchs has near him a + tablet bearing his name. That great care was always taken to keep these + imposing records correct is certain; the loyalty of subjects, the devotion + of priests, and the family pride of kings were all combined in this; and + how effective this care was, is seen in the fact that kings now known to + be usurpers are carefully omitted. The lists of court architects, + extending over the period from Seti to Darius, throw a flood of light over + the other records. + </p> + <p> + Comparing, then, all these sources, and applying an average from the + lengths of the long series of well-known reigns to the reigns preceding, + the most careful and cautious scholars have satisfied themselves that the + original fragments of Manetho represent the work of a man honest and well + informed, and, after making all allowances for discrepancies and the + overlapping of reigns, it has become clear that the period known as the + reign of Mena must be fixed at more than three thousand years B.C. In this + the great Egyptologists of our time concur. Mariette, the eminent French + authority, puts the date at 5004 B.C.; Brugsch, the leading German + authority, puts it at about 4500 B.C.; and Meyer, the latest and most + cautious of the historians of antiquity, declares 3180 B.C. the latest + possible date that can be assigned it. With these dates the foremost + English authorities, Sayce and Flinders Petrie, substantially agree. This + view is also confirmed on astronomical grounds by Mr. Lockyer, the + Astronomer Royal. We have it, then, as the result of a century of work by + the most acute and trained Egyptologists, and with the inscriptions upon + the temples and papyri before them, both of which are now read with as + much facility as many medieval manuscripts, that the reign of Mena must be + placed more than five thousand years ago. + </p> + <p> + But the significance of this conclusion can not be fully understood until + we bring into connection with it some other facts revealed by the Egyptian + monuments. + </p> + <p> + The first of these is that which struck Sir Walter Raleigh, that, even in + the time of the first dynasties in the Nile Valley, a high civilization + had already been developed. Take, first, man himself: we find sculptured + upon the early monuments types of the various races—Egyptians, + Israelites, negroes, and Libyans—as clearly distinguishable in these + paintings and sculptures of from four to six thousand years ago as the + same types are at the present day. No one can look at these sculptures + upon the Egyptian monuments, or even the drawings of them, as given by + Lepsius or Prisse d' Avennes, without being convinced that they indicate, + even at that remote period, a difference of races so marked that long + previous ages must have been required to produce it. + </p> + <p> + The social condition of Egypt revealed in these early monuments of art + forces us to the same conclusion. Those earliest monuments show that a + very complex society had even then been developed. We not only have a + separation between the priestly and military orders, but agriculturists, + manufacturers, and traders, with a whole series of subdivisions in each of + these classes. The early tombs show us sculptured and painted + representations of a daily life which even then had been developed into a + vast wealth and variety of grades, forms, and usages. + </p> + <p> + Take, next, the political and military condition. One fact out of many + reveals a policy which must have been the result of long experience. Just + as now, at the end of the nineteenth century, the British Government, + having found that they can not rely upon the native Egyptians for the + protection of the country, are drilling the negroes from the interior of + Africa as soldiers, so the celebrated inscription of Prince Una, as far + back as the sixth dynasty, speaks of the Maksi or negroes levied and + drilled by tens of thousands for the Egyptian army. + </p> + <p> + Take, next, engineering. Here we find very early operations in the way of + canals, dikes, and great public edifices, so bold in conception and + thorough in execution as to fill our greatest engineers of these days with + astonishment. The quarrying, conveyance, cutting, jointing, and polishing + of the enormous blocks in the interior of the Great Pyramid alone are the + marvel of the foremost stone-workers of our century. + </p> + <p> + As regards architecture, we find not only the pyramids, which date from + the very earliest period of Egyptian history, and which are to this hour + the wonder of the world for size, for boldness, for exactness, and for + skilful contrivance, but also the temples, with long ranges of colossal + columns wrought in polished granite, with wonderful beauty of + ornamentation, with architraves and roofs vast in size and exquisite in + adjustment, which by their proportions tax the imagination, and lead the + beholder to ask whether all this can be real. + </p> + <p> + As to sculpture, we have not only the great Sphinx of Gizeh, so marvellous + in its boldness and dignity, dating from the very first period of Egyptian + history, but we have ranges of sphinxes, heroic statues, and bas-reliefs, + showing that even in the early ages this branch of art had reached an + amazing development. + </p> + <p> + As regards the perfection of these, Lubke, the most eminent German + authority on plastic art, referring to the early works in the tombs about + Memphis, declares that, "as monuments of the period of the fourth dynasty, + they are an evidence of the high perfection to which the sculpture of the + Egyptians had attained." Brugsch declares that "every artistic production + of those early days, whether picture, writing, or sculpture, bears the + stamp of the highest perfection in art." Maspero, the most eminent French + authority in this field, while expressing his belief that the Sphinx was + sculptured even before the time of Mena, declares that "the art which + conceived and carved this prodigious statue was a finished art—an + art which had attained self-mastery and was sure of its effects"; while, + among the more eminent English authorities, Sayce tells us that "art is at + its best in the age of the pyramid-builders," and Sir James Fergusson + declares, "We are startled to find Egyptian art nearly as perfect in the + oldest periods as in any of the later." + </p> + <p> + The evidence as to the high development of Egyptian sculpture in the + earlier dynasties becomes every day more overwhelming. What exquisite + genius the early Egyptian sculptors showed in their lesser statues is + known to all who have seen those most precious specimens in the museum at + Cairo, which were wrought before the conventional type was adopted in + obedience to religious considerations. + </p> + <p> + In decorative and especially in ceramic art, as early as the fourth and + fifth dynasties, we have vases, cups, and other vessels showing exquisite + beauty of outline and a general sense of form almost if not quite equal to + Etruscan and Grecian work of the best periods. + </p> + <p> + Take, next, astronomy. Going back to the very earliest period of Egyptian + civilization, we find that the four sides of the Great Pyramid are + adjusted to the cardinal points with the utmost precision. "The day of the + equinox can be taken by observing the sun set across the face of the + pyramid, and the neighbouring Arabs adjust their astronomical dates by its + shadow." Yet this is but one out of many facts which prove that the + Egyptians, at the earliest period of which their monuments exist, had + arrived at knowledge and skill only acquired by long ages of observation + and thought. Mr. Lockyer, Astronomer Royal of Great Britain, has recently + convinced himself, after careful examination of various ruined temples at + Thebes and elsewhere, that they were placed with reference to observations + of stars. To state his conclusion in his own words: "There seems a very + high probability that three thousand, and possibly four thousand, years + before Christ the Egyptians had among them men with some knowledge of + astronomy, and that six thousand years ago the course of the sun through + the year was practically very well known, and methods had been invented by + means of which in time it might be better known; and that, not very long + after that, they not only considered questions relating to the sun, but + began to take up other questions relating to the position and movement of + the stars." + </p> + <p> + The same view of the antiquity of man in the Nile valley is confirmed by + philologists. To use the words of Max Duncker: "The oldest monuments of + Egypt—and they are the oldest monuments in the world—exhibit + the Egyptian in possession of the art of writing." It is found also, by + the inscriptions of the early dynasties, that the Egyptian language had + even at that early time been developed in all essential particulars to the + highest point it ever attained. What long periods it must have required + for such a development every scholar in philology can imagine. + </p> + <p> + As regards medical science, we have the Berlin papyrus, which, although of + a later period, refers with careful specification to a medical literature + of the first dynasty. + </p> + <p> + As regards archaeology, the earliest known inscriptions point to still + earlier events and buildings, indicating a long sequence in previous + history. + </p> + <p> + As to all that pertains to the history of civilization, no man of fair and + open mind can go into the museums of Cairo or the Louvre or the British + Museum and look at the monuments of those earlier dynasties without seeing + in them the results of a development in art, science, laws, customs, and + language, which must have required a vast period before the time of Mena. + And this conclusion is forced upon us all the more invincibly when we + consider the slow growth of ideas in the earlier stages of civilization as + compared with the later—a slowness of growth which has kept the + natives of many parts of the world in that earliest civilization to this + hour. To this we must add the fact that Egyptian civilization was + especially immobile: its development into castes is but one among many + evidences that it was the very opposite of a civilization developed + rapidly. + </p> + <p> + As to the length of the period before the time of Mena, there is, of + course, nothing exact. Manetho gives lists of great personages before that + first dynasty, and these extend over twenty-four thousand years. Bunsen, + one of the most learned of Christian scholars, declares that not less than + ten thousand years were necessary for the development of civilization up + to the point where we find it in Mena's time. No one can claim precision + for either of these statements, but they are valuable as showing the + impression of vast antiquity made upon the most competent judges by the + careful study of those remains: no unbiased judge can doubt that an + immensely long period of years must have been required for the development + of civilization up to the state in which we there find it. + </p> + <p> + The investigations in the bed of the Nile confirm these views. That some + unwarranted conclusions have at times been announced is true; but the fact + remains that again and again rude pottery and other evidences of early + stages of civilization have been found in borings at places so distant + from each other, and at depths so great, that for such a range of + concurring facts, considered in connection with the rate of earthy deposit + by the Nile, there is no adequate explanation save the existence of man in + that valley thousands on thousands of years before the longest time + admitted by our sacred chronologists. + </p> + <p> + Nor have these investigations been of a careless character. Between the + years 1851 and 1854, Mr. Horner, an extremely cautious English geologist, + sank ninety-six shafts in four rows at intervals of eight English miles, + at right angles to the Nile, in the neighbourhood of Memphis. In these + pottery was brought up from various depths, and beneath the statue of + Rameses II at Memphis from a depth of thirty-nine feet. At the rate of the + Nile deposit a careful estimate has declared this to indicate a period of + over eleven thousand years. So eminent a German authority, in geography as + Peschel characterizes objections to such deductions as groundless. However + this may be, the general results of these investigations, taken in + connection with the other results of research, are convincing. + </p> + <p> + And, finally, as if to make assurance doubly sure, a series of + archaeologists of the highest standing, French, German, English, and + American, have within the past twenty years discovered relics of a savage + period, of vastly earlier date than the time of Mena, prevailing + throughout Egypt. These relics have been discovered in various parts of + the country, from Cairo to Luxor, in great numbers. They are the same sort + of prehistoric implements which prove to us the early existence of man in + so many other parts of the world at a geological period so remote that the + figures given by our sacred chronologists are but trivial. The last and + most convincing of these discoveries, that of flint implements in the + drift, far down below the tombs of early kings at Thebes, and upon high + terraces far above the present bed of the Nile, will be referred to later. + </p> + <p> + But it is not in Egypt alone that proofs are found of the utter inadequacy + of the entire chronological system derived from our sacred books. These + results of research in Egypt are strikingly confirmed by research in + Assyria and Babylonia. Prof. Sayce exhibits various proofs of this. To use + his own words regarding one of these proofs: "On the shelves of the + British Museum you may see huge sun-dried bricks, on which are stamped the + names and titles of kings who erected or repaired the temples where they + have been found.... They must... have reigned before the time when, + according to the margins of our Bibles, the Flood of Noah was covering the + earth and reducing such bricks as these to their primeval slime." + </p> + <p> + This conclusion was soon placed beyond a doubt. The lists of king's and + collateral inscriptions recovered from the temples of the great valley + between the Tigris and Euphrates, and the records of astronomical + observations in that region, showed that there, too, a powerful + civilization had grown up at a period far earlier than could be made + consistent with our sacred chronology. The science of Assyriology was thus + combined with Egyptology to furnish one more convincing proof that, + precious as are the moral and religious truths in our sacred books and the + historical indications which they give us, these truths and indications + are necessarily inclosed in a setting of myth and legend.(184) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (184) As to Manetho, see, for a very full account of his relations to +other chronologists, Palmer, Egyptian Chronicles, vol. i, chap. ii. +For a more recent and readable account, see Brugsch, Egypt under the +Pharaohs, English edition, London, 1879, chap. iv. For lists of kings at +Abydos and elsewhere, also the lists of architects, see Brugsch, Palmer, +Mariette, and others; also illustrations in Lepsius. For proofs that the +dynasties given were consecutive and not contemporeaneous, as was +once so fondly argued by those who tried to save Archbishop Usher's +chronology, see Mariette; also Sayce's Herodotus, appendix, p. 316. +For the various race types given on early monuments, see the coloured +engravings in Lepsius, Denkmaler; also Prisse d'Avennes, and the +frontpiece in the English edition of Brugsch; see also statement +regarding the same subject in Tylor, Anthropology, chap. i. For +the fulness of development of Egyptian civilization in the earliest +dynasties, see Rawlinson's Egypt, London, 1881, chap. xiii; also Brugsch +and other works cited. For the perfection of Egyptian engineering, +I rely not merely upon my own observation, but on what is far more +important, the testimony of my friend the Hon. J. G. Batterson, probably +the largest and most experienced worker in granite in the United States, +who acknowledges, from personal observation, that the early Egyptian +work is, in boldness and perfection, far beyond anything known since, +and a source of perpetual wonder to him. As to the perfection of +Egyptian architecture, see very striking statements in Fergusson, +History of Architecture, book i, chap. i. As to the pyramids, showing a +very high grade of culture already reached under the earliest dynasties, +see Lubke, Gesch. der Arch., book i. For Sayce's views, see his +Herodotus, appendix, p. 348. As to sculpture, see for representations +photographs published by the Boulak Museum, and such works as the +Description de l'Egypte, Lepsius's Denkmaler, and Prisse d'Avennes; see +also a most small work, easy of access, Maspero, Archeology, translated +by Miss A. B. Edwards, New York and London, 1887, chaps. i and ii. See +especially in Prisse, vol. ii, the statue of Chafre the Scribe, and the +group of "Tea" and his wife. As to the artistic value of the Sphinx, +see Maspero, as above, pp. 202, 203. See also similar ideas in Lubke's +History of Sculpture, vol. i, p. 24. As to astronomical knowledge +evidenced by the Great Pyramid, see Tylor, as above, p. 21; also +Lockyer, On Some Points in the Early History of Astronomy, in Nature +for 1891, and especially in the issues of June 4th and July 2d; also his +Dawn of Astronomy, passim. For a recent and conservative statement as to +the date of Mena, see Flinders Petrie, History of Egypt, London, 1894, +chap. ii. For delineations of vases, etc., showing Grecian proportion +and beauty of form under the fourth and fifth dynasties, see Prisse, +vol. ii, Art Industriel. As to the philological question, and the +development of language in Egypt, with the hieroglyphic sytem of +writing, see Rawlinson's Egypt, London, 1881, chap. xii; also Lenormanr; +also Max Duncker, Geschichte des Alterthums, Abbott's translation, 1877. +As to the medical papyrus of Berlin, see Brugsch, vol. i, p. 58, but +especially the Papyrus Ebers. As to the corruption of later copies of +Manetho and fidelity of originals as attested by the monuments, see +Brugsch, chap. iv. On the accuracy of the present Egyptian chronology as +regards long periods, see ibid, vol. i, p. 32. As to the pottery found +deep in the Nile and the value of Horner's discovery, see Peschel, Races +of Man, New York, 1876, pp. 42-44. For succinct statement, see also +Laing, Problems of the Future, p. 94. For confirmatory proofs from +Assyriology, see Sayce, Lectures on the Religion of the Babylonians +(Hibbert Lectures for 1887), London, 1887, introductory chapter, and +especially pp. 21-25. See also Laing, Human Origins, chap. ii, for an +excellent summary. For an account of flint implements recently found +in gravel terraces fifteen hundred feet above the present level of the +Nile, and showing evidences of an age vastly greater even than those dug +out of the gravel at Thebes, see article by Flinders Petrie in London +Times of April 18th, 1895. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VII. THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN AND PREHISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0033" id="link2H_4_0033"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I. THE THUNDER-STONES. + </h2> + <p> + While the view of chronology based upon the literal acceptance of + Scripture texts was thus shaken by researches in Egypt, another line of + observation and thought was slowly developed, even more fatal to the + theological view. + </p> + <p> + From a very early period there had been dug from the earth, in various + parts of the world, strangely shaped masses of stone, some rudely chipped, + some polished: in ancient times the larger of these were very often + considered as thunderbolts, the smaller as arrows, and all of them as + weapons which had been hurled by the gods and other supernatural + personages. Hence a sort of sacredness attached to them. In Chaldea, they + were built into the wall of temples; in Egypt, they were strung about the + necks of the dead. In India, fine specimens are to this day seen upon + altars, receiving prayers and sacrifices. + </p> + <p> + Naturally these beliefs were brought into the Christian mythology and + adapted to it. During the Middle Ages many of these well-wrought stones + were venerated as weapons, which during the "war in heaven" had been used + in driving forth Satan and his hosts; hence in the eleventh century an + Emperor of the East sent to the Emperor of the West a "heaven axe"; and in + the twelfth century a Bishop of Rennes asserted the value of + thunder-stones as a divinely-appointed means of securing success in + battle, safety on the sea, security against thunder, and immunity from + unpleasant dreams. Even as late as the seventeenth century a French + ambassador brought a stone hatchet, which still exists in the museum at + Nancy, as a present to the Prince-Bishop of Verdun, and claimed for it + health-giving virtues. + </p> + <p> + In the last years of the sixteenth century Michael Mercati tried to prove + that the "thunder-stones" were weapons or implements of early races of + men; but from some cause his book was not published until the following + century, when other thinkers had begun to take up the same idea, and then + it had to contend with a theory far more accordant with theologic modes of + reasoning in science. This was the theory of the learned Tollius, who in + 1649 told the world that these chipped or smoothed stones were "generated + in the sky by a fulgurous exhalation conglobed in a cloud by the + circumposed humour." + </p> + <p> + But about the beginning of the eighteenth century a fact of great + importance was quietly established. In the year 1715 a large pointed + weapon of black flint was found in contact with the bones of an elephant, + in a gravel bed near Gray's Inn Lane, in London. The world in general paid + no heed to this: if the attention of theologians was called to it, they + dismissed it summarily with a reference to the Deluge of Noah; but the + specimen was labelled, the circumstances regarding it were recorded, and + both specimen and record carefully preserved. + </p> + <p> + In 1723 Jussieu addressed the French Academy on The Origin and Uses of + Thunder-stones. He showed that recent travellers from various parts of the + world had brought a number of weapons and other implements of stone to + France, and that they were essentially similar to what in Europe had been + known as "thunder-stones." A year later this fact was clinched into the + scientific mind of France by the Jesuit Lafitau, who published a work + showing the similarity between the customs of aborigines then existing in + other lands and those of the early inhabitants of Europe. So began, in + these works of Jussieu and Lafitau, the science of Comparative + Ethnography. + </p> + <p> + But it was at their own risk and peril that thinkers drew from these + discoveries any conclusions as to the antiquity of man. Montesquieu, + having ventured to hint, in an early edition of his Persian Letters, that + the world might be much older than had been generally supposed, was soon + made to feel danger both to his book and to himself, so that in succeeding + editions he suppressed the passage. + </p> + <p> + In 1730 Mahudel presented a paper to the French Academy of Inscriptions on + the so-called "thunder-stones," and also presented a series of plates + which showed that these were stone implements, which must have been used + at an early period in human history. + </p> + <p> + In 1778 Buffon, in his Epoques de la Nature, intimated his belief that + "thunder-stones" were made by early races of men; but he did not press + this view, and the reason for his reserve was obvious enough: he had + already one quarrel with the theologians on his hands, which had cost him + dear—public retraction and humiliation. His declaration, therefore, + attracted little notice. + </p> + <p> + In the year 1800 another fact came into the minds of thinking men in + England. In that year John Frere presented to the London Society of + Antiquaries sundry flint implements found in the clay beds near Hoxne: + that they were of human make was certain, and, in view of the undisturbed + depths in which they were found, the theory was suggested that the men who + made them must have lived at a very ancient geological epoch; yet even + this discovery and theory passed like a troublesome dream, and soon seemed + to be forgotten. + </p> + <p> + About twenty years later Dr. Buckland published a discussion of the + subject, in the light of various discoveries in the drift and in caves. It + received wide attention, but theology was soothed by his temporary + concession that these striking relics of human handiwork, associated with + the remains of various extinct animals, were proofs of the Deluge of Noah. + </p> + <p> + In 1823 Boue, of the Vienna Academy of Sciences, showed to Cuvier sundry + human bones found deep in the alluvial deposits of the upper Rhine, and + suggested that they were of an early geological period; this Cuvier + virtually, if not explicitly, denied. Great as he was in his own field, he + was not a great geologist; he, in fact, led geology astray for many years. + Moreover, he lived in a time of reaction; it was the period of the + restored Bourbons, of the Voltairean King Louis XVIII, governing to please + orthodoxy. Boue's discovery was, therefore, at first opposed, then + enveloped in studied silence. + </p> + <p> + Cuvier evidently thought, as Voltaire had felt under similar + circumstances, that "among wolves one must howl a little"; and his leading + disciple, Elie de Beaumont, who succeeded, him in the sway over geological + science in France, was even more opposed to the new view than his great + master had been. Boue's discoveries were, therefore, apparently laid to + rest forever.(185) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (185) For the general history of early views regarding stone implements, +see the first chapters in Cartailhac, La France Prehistorique; also +Jolie, L'Homme avant les Metaux; also Lyell, Lubbock, and Evans. For +lightning-stones in China and elsewhere, see citation from a Chinese +encyclopedia of 1662, in Tylor, Early History of Mankind, p. 209. On the +universality of this belief, on the surviving use of stone implements +even into civilized times, and on their manufacture to-day, see ibid., +chapter viii. For the treatment of Boue's discovery, see especially +Morillet, Le Prehistorique, Paris, 1885, p. 11. For the suppression of +the passage in Montesquieu's Persian Letters, see Letter 113, cited in +Schlosser's History of the Eighteenth Century (English translation), +vol. i, p. 135. +</pre> + <p> + In 1825 Kent's Cavern, near Torquay, was explored by the Rev. Mr. McEnery, + a Roman Catholic clergyman, who seems to have been completely overawed by + orthodox opinion in England and elsewhere; for, though he found human + bones and implements mingled with remains of extinct animals, he kept his + notes in manuscript, and they were only brought to light more than thirty + years later by Mr. Vivian. + </p> + <p> + The coming of Charles X, the last of the French Bourbons, to the throne, + made the orthodox pressure even greater. It was the culmination of the + reactionary period—the time in France when a clerical committee, + sitting at the Tuileries, took such measures as were necessary to hold in + check all science that was not perfectly "safe"; the time in Austria when + Kaiser Franz made his famous declaration to sundry professors, that what + he wanted of them was simply to train obedient subjects, and that those + who did not make this their purpose would be dismissed; the time in + Germany when Nicholas of Russia and the princelings and ministers under + his control, from the King of Prussia downward, put forth all their might + in behalf of "scriptural science"; the time in Italy when a scientific + investigator, arriving at any conclusion distrusted by the Church, was + sure of losing his place and in danger of losing his liberty; the time in + England when what little science was taught was held in due submission to + Archdeacon Paley; the time in the United States when the first thing + essential in science was, that it be adjusted to the ideas of revival + exhorters. + </p> + <p> + Yet men devoted to scientific truth laboured on; and in 1828 Tournal, of + Narbonne, discovered in the cavern of Bize specimens of human industry, + with a fragment of a human skeleton, among bones of extinct animals. In + the following year Christol published accounts of his excavations in the + caverns of Gard; he had found in position, and under conditions which + forbade the idea of after-disturbance, human remains mixed with bones of + the extinct hyena of the early Quaternary period. Little general notice + was taken of this, for the reactionary orthodox atmosphere involved such + discoveries in darkness. + </p> + <p> + But in the French Revolution of 1830 the old politico-theological system + collapsed: Charles X and his advisers fled for their lives; the other + continental monarchs got glimpses of new light; the priesthood in charge + of education were put on their good behaviour for a time, and a better era + began. + </p> + <p> + Under the constitutional monarchy of the house of Orleans in France and + Belgium less attention was therefore paid by Government to the saving of + souls; and we have in rapid succession new discoveries of remains of human + industry, and even of human skeletons so mingled with bones of extinct + animals as to give additional proofs that the origin of man was at a + period vastly earlier than any which theologians had dreamed of. + </p> + <p> + A few years later the reactionary clerical influence against science in + this field rallied again. Schmerling in 1833 had explored a multitude of + caverns in Belgium, especially at Engis and Engihoul, and had found human + skulls and bones closely associated with bones of extinct animals, such as + the cave bear, hyena, elephant, and rhinoceros, while mingled with these + were evidences of human workmanship in the shape of chipped flint + implements; discoveries of a similar sort had been made by De Serres in + France and by Lund in Brazil; but, at least as far as continental Europe + was concerned, these discoveries were received with much coolness both by + Catholic leaders of opinion in France and Belgium and by Protestant + leaders in England and Holland. Schmerling himself appears to have been + overawed, and gave forth a sort of apologetic theory, half scientific, + half theologic, vainly hoping to satisfy the clerical side. + </p> + <p> + Nor was it much better in England. Sir Charles Lyell, so devoted a servant + of prehistoric research thirty years later, was still holding out against + it on the scientific side; and, as to the theological side, it was the + period when that great churchman, Dean Cockburn, was insulting geologists + from the pulpit of York Minster, and the Rev. Mellor Brown denouncing + geology as "a black art," "a forbidden province" and when, in America, + Prof. Moses Stuart and others like him were belittling the work of + Benjamin Silliman and Edward Hitchcock. + </p> + <p> + In 1840 Godwin Austin presented to the Royal Geological Society an account + of his discoveries in Kent's Cavern, near Torquay, and especially of human + bones and implements mingled with bones of the elephant, rhinoceros, cave + bear, hyena, and other extinct animals; yet this memoir, like that of + McEnery fifteen years before, found an atmosphere so unfavourable that it + was not published. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0034" id="link2H_4_0034"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II. THE FLINT WEAPONS AND IMPLEMENTS. + </h2> + <p> + At the middle of the nineteenth century came the beginning of a new epoch + in science—an epoch when all these earlier discoveries were to be + interpreted by means of investigations in a different field: for, in 1847, + a man previously unknown to the world at large, Boucher de Perthes, + published at Paris the first volume of his work on Celtic and Antediluvian + Antiquities, and in this he showed engravings of typical flint implements + and weapons, of which he had discovered thousands upon thousands in the + high drift beds near Abbeville, in northern France. + </p> + <p> + The significance of this discovery was great indeed—far greater than + Boucher himself at first supposed. The very title of his book showed that + he at first regarded these implements and weapons as having belonged to + men overwhelmed at the Deluge of Noah; but it was soon seen that they were + something very different from proofs of the literal exactness of Genesis: + for they were found in terraces at great heights above the river Somme, + and, under any possible theory having regard to fact, must have been + deposited there at a time when the river system of northern France was + vastly different from anything known within the historic period. The whole + discovery indicated a series of great geological changes since the time + when these implements were made, requiring cycles of time compared to + which the space allowed by the orthodox chronologists was as nothing. + </p> + <p> + His work was the result of over ten years of research and thought. Year + after year a force of men under his direction had dug into these + high-terraced gravel deposits of the river Somme, and in his book he now + gave, in the first full form, the results of his labour. So far as France + was concerned, he was met at first by what he calls "a conspiracy of + silence," and then by a contemptuous opposition among orthodox scientists, + at the head of whom stood Elie de Beaumont. + </p> + <p> + This heavy, sluggish opposition seemed immovable: nothing that Boucher + could do or say appeared to lighten the pressure of the orthodox + theological opinion behind it; not even his belief that these fossils were + remains of men drowned at the Deluge of Noah, and that they were proofs of + the literal exactness of Genesis seemed to help the matter. His opponents + felt instinctively that such discoveries boded danger to the accepted + view, and they were right: Boucher himself soon saw the folly of trying to + account for them by the orthodox theory. + </p> + <p> + And it must be confessed that not a little force was added to the + opposition by certain characteristics of Boucher de Perthes himself. + Gifted, far-sighted, and vigorous as he was, he was his own worst enemy. + Carried away by his own discoveries, he jumped to the most astounding + conclusions. The engravings in the later volume of his great work, showing + what he thought to be human features and inscriptions upon some of the + flint implements, are worthy of a comic almanac; and at the National + Museum of Archaeology at St. Germain, beneath the shelves bearing the + remains which he discovered, which mark the beginning of a new epoch in + science, are drawers containing specimens hardly worthy of a penny museum, + but from which he drew the most unwarranted inferences as to the language, + religion, and usages of prehistoric man. + </p> + <p> + Boucher triumphed none the less. Among his bitter opponents at first was + Dr. Rigollot, who in 1855, searching earnestly for materials to refute the + innovator, dug into the deposits of St. Acheul—and was converted: + for he found implements similar to those of Abbeville, making still more + certain the existence of man during the Drift period. So, too, Gaudry a + year later made similar discoveries. + </p> + <p> + But most important was the evidence of the truth which now came from other + parts of France and from other countries. The French leaders in geological + science had been held back not only by awe of Cuvier but by recollections + of Scheuchzer. Ridicule has always been a serious weapon in France, and + the ridicule which finally overtook the supporters of the attempt of + Scheuchzer, Mazurier, and others, to square geology with Genesis, was + still remembered. From the great body of French geologists, therefore, + Boucher secured at first no aid. His support came from the other side of + the Channel. The most eminent English geologists, such as Falconer, + Prestwich, and Lyell, visited the beds at Abbeville and St. Acheul, + convinced themselves that the discoveries of Boucher, Rigollot, and their + colleagues were real, and then quietly but firmly told England the truth. + </p> + <p> + And now there appeared a most effective ally in France. The arguments used + against Boucher de Perthes and some of the other early investigators of + bone caves had been that the implements found might have been washed about + and turned over by great floods, and therefore that they might be of a + recent period; but in 1861 Edward Lartet published an account of his own + excavations at the Grotto of Aurignac, and the proof that man had existed + in the time of the Quaternary animals was complete. This grotto had been + carefully sealed in prehistoric times by a stone at its entrance; no + interference from disturbing currents of water had been possible; and + Lartet found, in place, bones of eight out of nine of the main species of + animals which characterize the Quaternary period in Europe; and upon them + marks of cutting implements, and in the midst of them coals and ashes. + </p> + <p> + Close upon these came the excavations at Eyzies by Lartet and his English + colleague, Christy. In both these men there was a carefulness in making + researches and a sobriety in stating results which converted many of those + who had been repelled by the enthusiasm of Boucher de Perthes. The two + colleagues found in the stony deposits made by the water dropping from the + roof of the cave at Eyzies the bones of numerous animals extinct or + departed to arctic regions—one of these a vertebra of a reindeer + with a flint lance-head still fast in it, and with these were found + evidences of fire. + </p> + <p> + Discoveries like these were thoroughly convincing; yet there still + remained here and there gainsayers in the supposed interest of Scripture, + and these, in spite of the convincing array of facts, insisted that in + some way, by some combination of circumstances, these bones of extinct + animals of vastly remote periods might have been brought into connection + with all these human bones and implements of human make in all these + different places, refusing to admit that these ancient relics of men and + animals were of the same period. Such gainsayers virtually adopted the + reasoning of quaint old Persons, who, having maintained that God created + the world "about five thousand sixe hundred and odde yeares agoe," added, + "And if they aske what God was doing before this short number of yeares, + we answere with St. Augustine replying to such curious questioners, that + He was framing Hell for them." But a new class of discoveries came to + silence this opposition. At La Madeleine in France, at the Kessler cave in + Switzerland, and at various other places, were found rude but striking + carvings and engravings on bone and stone representing sundry specimens of + those long-vanished species; and these specimens, or casts of them, were + soon to be seen in all the principal museums. They showed the hairy + mammoth, the cave bear, and various other animals of the Quaternary + period, carved rudely but vigorously by contemporary men; and, to complete + the significance of these discoveries, travellers returning from the icy + regions of North America brought similar carvings of animals now existing + in those regions, made by the Eskimos during their long arctic winters + to-day.(186) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (186) For the explorations in Belgium, see Dupont, Le Temps +Prehistorique en Belgique. For the discoveries by McEnery and Godwin +Austin, see Lubbock, Prehistoric Times, London, 1869, chap. x; also +Cartailhac, Joly, and others above cited. For Boucher de Perthes, see +his Antiquites Celtiques et Antediluviennes, Paris, 1847-'64, vol. iii, +pp. 526 et seq. For sundry extravagances of Boucher de Perthes, see +Reinach, Description raisonne du Musee de St.-Germain-en-Laye, Paris, +1889, vol. i, pp. 16 et seq. For the mixture of sound and absurd results +in Boucher's work, see Cartailhac as above, p. 19. Boucher had published +in 1838 a work entitled De la Creation, but it seems to have dropped +dead from the press. For the attempts of Scheuchzer to reconcile geology +and Genesis by means of the Homo diluvii testis, and similar "diluvian +fossils," see the chapter on Geology in this series. The original +specimens of these prehistoric engravings upon bone and stone may best +be seen at the Archaeological Museum of St.-Germain and the British +Museum. For engravings of some of the most recent, see especially +Dawkin's Early Man in Britain, chap. vii, and the Description du Musee +de St.-Germain. As to the Kessler etchings and their antiquity, see +D. G. Brinton, in Science, August 12, 1892. For comparison of this +prehistoric work with that produced to-day by the Eskimos and others, +see Lubbock, Prehistoric Times, chapters x and xiv. For very striking +exhibitions of this same artistic gift in a higher field to-day by +descendants of the barbarian tribes of northern America, see the very +remarkable illustrations in Rink, Danish Greenland, London, 1877, +especially those in chap. xiv. +</pre> + <p> + As a result of these discoveries and others like them, showing that man + was not only contemporary with long-extinct animals of past geological + epochs, but that he had already developed into a stage of culture above + pure savagery, the tide of thought began to turn. Especially was this seen + in 1863, when Lyell published the first edition of his Geological Evidence + of the Antiquity of Man; and the fact that he had so long opposed the new + ideas gave force to the clear and conclusive argument which led him to + renounce his early scientific beliefs. + </p> + <p> + Research among the evidences of man's existence in the early Quaternary, + and possibly in the Tertiary period, was now pressed forward along the + whole line. In 1864 Gabriel Mortillet founded his review devoted to this + subject; and in 1865 the first of a series of scientific congresses + devoted to such researches was held in Italy. These investigations went on + vigorously in all parts of France and spread rapidly to other countries. + The explorations which Dupont began in 1864, in the caves of Belgium, gave + to the museum at Brussels eighty thousand flint implements, forty thousand + bones of animals of the Quaternary period, and a number of human skulls + and bones found mingled with these remains. From Germany, Italy, Spain, + America, India, and Egypt similar results were reported. + </p> + <p> + Especially noteworthy were the further explorations of the caves and drift + throughout the British Islands. The discovery by Colonel Wood, In 1861, of + flint tools in the same strata with bones of the earlier forms of the + rhinoceros, was but typical of many. A thorough examination of the caverns + of Brixham and Torquay, by Pengelly and others, made it still more evident + that man had existed in the early Quaternary period. The existence of a + period before the Glacial epoch or between different glacial epochs in + England, when the Englishman was a savage, using rude stone tools, was + then fully ascertained, and, what was more significant, there were clearly + shown a gradation and evolution even in the history of that period. It was + found that this ancient Stone epoch showed progress and development. In + the upper layers of the caves, with remains of the reindeer, who, although + he has migrated from these regions, still exists in more northern + climates, were found stone implements revealing some little advance in + civilization; next below these, sealed up in the stalagmite, came, as a + rule, another layer, in which the remains of reindeer were rare and those + of the mammoth more frequent, the implements found in this stratum being + less skilfully made than those in the upper and more recent layers; and, + finally, in the lowest levels, near the floors of these ancient caverns, + with remains of the cave bear and others of the most ancient extinct + animals, were found stone implements evidently of a yet ruder and earlier + stage of human progress. No fairly unprejudiced man can visit the cave and + museum at Torquay without being convinced that there were a gradation and + an evolution in these beginnings of human civilization. The evidence is + complete; the masses of breccia taken from the cave, with the various + soils, implements, and bones carefully kept in place, put this progress + beyond a doubt. + </p> + <p> + All this indicated a great antiquity for the human race, but in it lay the + germs of still another great truth, even more important and more serious + in its consequences to the older theologic view, which will be discussed + in the following chapter. + </p> + <p> + But new evidences came in, showing a yet greater antiquity of man. Remains + of animals were found in connection with human remains, which showed not + only that man was living in times more remote than the earlier of the new + investigators had dared dream, but that some of these early periods of his + existence must have been of immense length, embracing climatic changes + betokening different geological periods; for with remains of fire and + human implements and human bones were found not only bones of the hairy + mammoth and cave bear, woolly rhinoceros, and reindeer, which could only + have been deposited there in a time of arctic cold, but bones of the + hyena, hippopotamus, sabre-toothed tiger, and the like, which could only + have been deposited when there was in these regions a torrid climate. The + conjunction of these remains clearly showed that man had lived in England + early enough and long enough to pass through times when there was arctic + cold and times when there was torrid heat; times when great glaciers + stretched far down into England and indeed into the continent, and times + when England had a land connection with the European continent, and the + European continent with Africa, allowing tropical animals to migrate + freely from Africa to the middle regions of England. + </p> + <p> + The question of the origin of man at a period vastly earlier than the + sacred chronologists permitted was thus absolutely settled, but among the + questions regarding the existence of man at a period yet more remote, the + Drift period, there was one which for a time seemed to give the champions + of science some difficulty. The orthodox leaders in the time of Boucher de + Perthes, and for a considerable time afterward, had a weapon of which they + made vigorous use: the statement that no human bones had yet been + discovered in the drift. The supporters of science naturally answered that + few if any other bones as small as those of man had been found, and that + this fact was an additional proof of the great length of the period since + man had lived with the extinct animals; for, since specimens of human + workmanship proved man's existence as fully as remains of his bones could + do, the absence or even rarity of human and other small bones simply + indicated the long periods of time required for dissolving them away. + </p> + <p> + Yet Boucher, inspired by the genius he had already shown, and filled with + the spirit of prophecy, declared that human bones would yet be found in + the midst of the flint implements, and in 1863 he claimed that this + prophecy had been fulfilled by the discovery at Moulin Quignon of a + portion of a human jaw deep in the early Quaternary deposits. But his + triumph was short-lived: the opposition ridiculed his discovery; they + showed that he had offered a premium to his workmen for the discovery of + human remains, and they naturally drew the inference that some tricky + labourer had deceived him. The result of this was that the men of science + felt obliged to acknowledge that the Moulin Quignon discovery was not + proven. + </p> + <p> + But ere long human bones were found in the deposits of the early + Quaternary period, or indeed of an earlier period, in various other parts + of the world, and the question regarding the Moulin Quignon relic was of + little importance. + </p> + <p> + We have seen that researches regarding the existence of prehistoric man in + England and on the Continent were at first mainly made in the caverns; but + the existence of man in the earliest Quaternary period was confirmed on + both sides of the English Channel, in a way even more striking, by the + close examination of the drift and early gravel deposits. The results + arrived at by Boucher de Perthes were amply confirmed in England. Rude + stone implements were found in terraces a hundred feet and more above the + levels at which various rivers of Great Britain now flow, and under + circumstances which show that, at the time when they were deposited, the + rivers of Great Britain in many cases were entirely different from those + of the present period, and formed parts of the river system of the + European continent. Researches in the high terraces above the Thames and + the Ouse, as well as at other points in Great Britain, placed beyond a + doubt the fact that man existed on the British Islands at a time when they + were connected by solid land with the Continent, and made it clear that, + within the period of the existence of man in northern Europe, a large + portion of the British Islands had been sunk to depths between fifteen + hundred and twenty-five hundred feet beneath the Northern Ocean,—had + risen again from the water,—had formed part of the continent of + Europe, and had been in unbroken connection with Africa, so that + elephants, bears, tigers, lions, the rhinoceros and hippopotamus, of + species now mainly extinct, had left their bones in the same deposits with + human implements as far north as Yorkshire. Moreover, connected with this + fact came in the new conviction, forced upon geologists by the more + careful examination of the earth and its changes, that such elevations and + depressions of Great Britain and other parts of the world were not + necessarily the results of sudden cataclysms, but generally of slow + processes extending through vast cycles of years—processes such as + are now known to be going on in various parts of the world. Thus it was + that the six or seven thousand years allowed by the most liberal + theologians of former times were seen more and more clearly to be but a + mere nothing in the long succession of ages since the appearance of man. + </p> + <p> + Confirmation of these results was received from various other parts of the + world. In Africa came the discovery of flint implements deep in the hard + gravel of the Nile Valley at Luxor and on the high hills behind Esneh. In + America the discoveries at Trenton, N.J., and at various places in + Delaware, Ohio, Minnesota, and elsewhere, along the southern edge of the + drift of the Glacial epochs, clinched the new scientific truth yet more + firmly; and the statement made by an eminent American authority is, that + "man was on this continent when the climate and ice of Greenland extended + to the mouth of New York harbour." The discoveries of prehistoric remains + on the Pacific coast, and especially in British Columbia, finished + completely the last chance at a reasonable contention by the adherents of + the older view. As to these investigations on the Pacific slope of the + United States, the discoveries of Whitney and others in California had + been so made and announced that the judgment of scientific men regarding + them was suspended until the visit of perhaps the greatest living + authority in his department, Alfred Russel Wallace, in 1887. He confirmed + the view of Prof. Whitney and others with the statement that "both the + actual remains and works of man found deep under the lava-flows of + Pliocene age show that he existed in the New World at least as early as in + the Old." To this may be added the discoveries in British Columbia, which + prove that, since man existed in these regions, "valleys have been filled + up by drift from the waste of mountains to a depth in some cases of + fifteen hundred feet; this covered by a succession of tuffs, ashes, and + lava-streams from volcanoes long since extinct, and finally cut down by + the present rivers through beds of solid basalt, and through this + accumulation of lavas and gravels." The immense antiquity of the human + remains in the gravels of the Pacific coast is summed up by a most eminent + English authority and declared to be proved, "first, by the present river + systems being of subsequent date, sometimes cutting through them and their + superincumbent lava-cap to a depth of two thousand feet; secondly, by the + great denudation that has taken place since they were deposited, for they + sometimes lie on the summits of mountains six thousand feet high; thirdly, + by the fact that the Sierra Nevada has been partly elevated since their + formation."(187) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (187) For the general subject of investigations in British prehistoric +remains, see especially Boyd Dawkins, Early Man in Britain and his Place +in the Tertiary Period, London, 1880. For Boucher de Perthes's account +of his discovery of the human jaw at Moulin Quignon, see his Antiquites +Celtiques et Antediluviennes, vol. iii, p. 542 et seq., Appendix. For an +excellent account of special investigations in the high terraces above +the Thames, see J. Allen Brown, F. G. S., Palaeolithic Man in Northwest +Middlesex, London, 1887. For discoveries in America, and the citations +regarding them, see Wright, the Ice Age in North America, New York, +1889, chap. xxi. Very remarkable examples of these specimens from +the drift at Trenton may be seen in Prof. Abbott's collections at the +University of Pennsylvania. For an admirable statement, see Prof. Henry +W. Haynes, in Wright, as above. For proofs of the vast antiquity of man +upon the Pacific coast, cited in the text, see Skertchley, F. G. S., in +the Journal of the Anthropological Institute for 1887, p. 336; see also +Wallace, Darwinism, London, 1890, chap. xv; and for a striking summary +of the evidence that man lived before the last submergence of Britain, +see Brown, Palaeolithic Man in Northwest Middlesex, as above cited. +For proofs that man existed in a period when the streams were flowing +hundreds of feet above their present level, see ibid., p. 33. As to the +evidence of the action of the sea and of glacial action in the Welsh +bone caves after the remains of extinct animals and weapons of human +workmanship had been deposited, see ibid., p. 198. For a good statement +of the slowness of the submergance and emergence of Great Britain, with +an illustration from the rising of the shore of Finland, see ibid., +pp. 47, 48. As to the flint implements of Palaeolithic man in the high +terraced gravels throughout the Thames Valley, associated with bones of +the mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, etc., see Brown, p. 31. For still +more conclusive proofs that man inhabited North Wales before the last +submergence of the greater part of the British Islands to a depth of +twelve hundred to fourteen hundred feet, see ibid., pp. 199, 200. For +maps showing the connection of the British river system with that of the +Continent, see Boyd Dawkins, Early Man in Britain, London, 1880, pp. +18, 41, 73; also Lyell, Antiquity of Man, chap. xiv. As to the long +continuance of the early Stone period, see James Geikie, The Great Ice +Age, New York, 1888, p. 402. As to the impossibility of the animals of +the arctic and torrid regions living together or visiting the same place +at different times in the same year, see Geikie, as above, pp. 421 +et seq.; and for a conclusive argument that the animals of the period +assigned lived in England not since, but before, the Glacial period, +or in the intergalcial period, see ibid., p. 459. For a very candid +statement by perhaps the foremost leader of the theological rear-guard, +admitting the insuperable difficulties presented by the Old Testament +chronology as regards the Creation and the Deluge, see the Duke of +Argyll's Primeval Man, pp. 90-100, and especially pp. 93, 124. For a +succinct statement on the general subject, see Laing, Problems of the +Future, London, 1889, chapters v and vi. For discoveries of prehistoric +implements in India, see notes by Bruce Foote, F. G. S., in the British +Journal of the Anthropological Institute for 1886 and 1887. For +similar discoveries in South Africa, see Gooch, in Journal of the +Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. xi, pp. 124 +et seq. For proofs of the existance of Palaeolithic man in Egypt, see +Mook, Haynes, Pitt-Rivers, Flinders-Petrie, and others, cited at length +in the next chapter. For the corroborative and concurrent testimony +of ethnology, philology, and history to the vast antiquity of man, see +Tylor, Anthropology, chap. i. +</pre> + <p> + As an important supplement to these discoveries of ancient implements came + sundry comparisons made by eminent physiologists between human skulls and + bones found in different places and under circumstances showing vast + antiquity. + </p> + <p> + Human bones had been found under such circumstances as early as 1835 at + Cannstadt near Stuttgart, and in 1856 in the Neanderthal near Dusseldorf; + but in more recent searches they had been discovered in a multitude of + places, especially in Germany, France, Belgium, England, the Caucasus, + Africa, and North and South America. Comparison of these bones showed that + even in that remote Quaternary period there were great differences of + race, and here again came in an argument for the yet earlier existence of + man on the earth; for long previous periods must have been required to + develop such racial differences. Considerations of this kind gave a new + impulse to the belief that man's existence might even date back into the + Tertiary period. The evidence for this earlier origin of man was ably + summed up, not only by its brilliant advocate, Mortillet, but by a former + opponent, one of the most conservative of modern anthropologists, + Quatrefages; and the conclusion arrived at by both was, that man did + really exist in the Tertiary period. The acceptance of this conclusion was + also seen in the more recent work of Alfred Russel Wallace, who, though + very cautious and conservative, placed the origin of man not only in the + Tertiary period, but in an earlier stage of it than most had dared assign—even + in the Miocene. + </p> + <p> + The first thing raising a strong presumption, if not giving proof, that + man existed in the Tertiary, was the fact that from all explored parts of + the world came in more and more evidence that in the earlier Quaternary + man existed in different, strongly marked races and in great numbers. From + all regions which geologists had explored, even from those the most + distant and different from each other, came this same evidence—from + northern Europe to southern Africa; from France to China; from New Jersey + to British Columbia; from British Columbia to Peru. The development of man + in such numbers and in so many different regions, with such differences of + race and at so early a period, must have required a long previous time. + </p> + <p> + This argument was strengthened by discoveries of bones bearing marks + apparently made by cutting instruments, in the Tertiary formations of + France and Italy, and by the discoveries of what were claimed to be flint + implements by the Abbe Bourgeois in France, and of implements and human + bones by Prof. Capellini in Italy. + </p> + <p> + On the other hand, some of the more cautious men of science are still + content to say that the existence of man in the Tertiary period is not yet + proven. As to his existence throughout the Quaternary epoch, no new proofs + are needed; even so determined a supporter of the theological side as the + Duke of Argyll has been forced to yield to the evidence. + </p> + <p> + Of attempts to make an exact chronological statement throwing light on the + length of the various prehistoric periods, the most notable have been + those by M. Morlot, on the accumulated strata of the Lake of Geneva; by + Gillieron, on the silt of Lake Neufchatel; by Horner, in the delta + deposits of Egypt; and by Riddle, in the delta of the Mississippi. But + while these have failed to give anything like an exact result, all these + investigations together point to the central truth, so amply established, + of the vast antiquity of man, and the utter inadequacy of the chronology + given in our sacred books. The period of man's past life upon our planet, + which has been fixed by the universal Church, "always, everywhere, and by + all," is thus perfectly proved to be insignificant compared with those + vast geological epochs during which man is now known to have existed.(188) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (188) As to the evidence of man in the Tertiary period, see works +already cited, especially Quatrefages, Cartailhac, and Mortillet. For an +admirable summary, see Laing, Human Origins, chap. viii. See also, for +a summing up of the evidence in favour of man in the Tertiary period, +Quatrefages, History Generale des Races Humaines, in the Bibliotheque +Ethnologique, Paris, 1887, chap. iv. As to the earlier view, see Vogt, +Lectures on Man, London, 1864, lecture xi. For a thorough and convincing +refutation of Sir J. W. Dawson's attempt to make the old and new Stone +periods coincide, see H. W. Haynes, in chap. vi of the History of +America, edited by Justin Winsor. For development of various important +points in the relation of anthropology to the human occupancy of our +planet, see Topinard, Anthropology, London, 1890, chap. ix. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VIII. THE "FALL OF MAN" AND ANTHROPOLOGY + </h2> + <p> + In the previous chapters we have seen how science, especially within the + eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, has thoroughly changed the + intelligent thought of the world in regard to the antiquity of man upon + our planet; and how the fabric built upon the chronological indications in + our sacred books—first, by the early fathers of the Church, + afterward by the medieval doctors, and finally by the reformers and modern + orthodox chronologists—has virtually disappeared before an entirely + different view forced upon us, especially by Egyptian and Assyrian + studies, as well as by geology and archeology. + </p> + <p> + In this chapter I purpose to present some outlines of the work of + Anthropology, especially as assisted by Ethnology, in showing what the + evolution of human civilization has been. + </p> + <p> + Here, too, the change from the old theological view based upon the letter + of our sacred books to the modern scientific view based upon evidence + absolutely irrefragable is complete. Here, too, we are at the beginning of + a vast change in the basis and modes of thought upon man—a change + even more striking than that accomplished by Copernicus and Galileo, when + they substituted for a universe in which sun and planets revolved about + the earth a universe in which the earth is but the merest grain or atom + revolving with other worlds, larger and smaller, about the sun; and all + these forming but one among innumerable systems. + </p> + <p> + Ever since the beginning of man's effective thinking upon the great + problems around him, two antagonistic views have existed regarding the + life of the human race upon earth. The first of these is the belief that + man was created "in the beginning" a perfect being, endowed with the + highest moral and intellectual powers, but that there came a "fall," and, + as its result, the entrance into the world of evil, toil, sorrow, and + death. + </p> + <p> + Nothing could be more natural than such an explanation of the existence of + evil, in times when men saw everywhere miracle and nowhere law. It is, + under such circumstances, by far the most easy of explanations, for it is + in accordance with the appearances of things: men adopted it just as + naturally as they adopted the theory that the Almighty hangs up the stars + as lights in the solid firmament above the earth, or hides the sun behind + a mountain at night, or wheels the planets around the earth, or flings + comets as "signs and wonders" to scare a wicked world, or allows evil + spirits to control thunder, lightning, and storm, and to cause diseases of + body and mind, or opens the "windows of heaven" to let down "the waters + that be above the heavens," and thus to give rain upon the earth. + </p> + <p> + A belief, then, in a primeval period of innocence and perfection—moral, + intellectual, and physical—from which men for some fault fell, is + perfectly in accordance with what we should expect. + </p> + <p> + Among the earliest known records of our race we find this view taking + shape in the Chaldean legends of war between the gods, and of a fall of + man; both of which seemed necessary to explain the existence of evil. + </p> + <p> + In Greek mythology perhaps the best-known statement was made by Hesiod: to + him it was revealed, regarding the men of the most ancient times, that + they were at first "a golden race," that "as gods they were wont to live, + with a life void of care, without labour and trouble; nor was wretched old + age at all impending; but ever did they delight themselves out of the + reach of all ills, and they died as if overcome by sleep; all blessings + were theirs: of its own will the fruitful field would bear them fruit, + much and ample, and they gladly used to reap the labours of their hands in + quietness along with many good things, being rich in flocks and true to + the blessed gods." But there came a "fall," caused by human curiosity. + Pandora, the first woman created, received a vase which, by divine + command, was to remain closed; but she was tempted to open it, and + troubles, sorrow, and disease escaped into the world, hope alone + remaining. + </p> + <p> + So, too, in Roman mythological poetry the well-known picture by Ovid is + but one among the many exhibitions of this same belief in a primeval + golden age—a Saturnian cycle; one of the constantly recurring + attempts, so universal and so natural in the early history of man, to + account for the existence of evil, care, and toil on earth by explanatory + myths and legends. + </p> + <p> + This view, growing out of the myths, legends, and theologies of earlier + peoples, we also find embodied in the sacred tradition of the Jews, and + especially in one of the documents which form the impressive poem + beginning the books attributed to Moses. As to the Christian Church, no + word of its Blessed Founder indicates that it was committed by him to this + theory, or that he even thought it worthy of his attention. How, like so + many other dogmas never dreamed of by Jesus of Nazareth and those who knew + him best, it was developed, it does not lie within the province of this + chapter to point out; nor is it worth our while to dwell upon its + evolution in the early Church, in the Middle Ages, at the Reformation, and + in various branches of the Protestant Church: suffice it that, though + among English-speaking nations by far the most important influence in its + favour has come from Milton's inspiration rather than from that of older + sacred books, no doctrine has been more universally accepted, "always, + everywhere, and by all," from the earliest fathers of the Church down to + the present hour. + </p> + <p> + On the other hand appeared at an early period the opposite view—that + mankind, instead of having fallen from a high intellectual, moral, and + religious condition, has slowly risen from low and brutal beginnings. In + Greece, among the philosophers contemporary with Socrates, we find Critias + depicting a rise of man, from a time when he was beastlike and lawless, + through a period when laws were developed, to a time when morality + received enforcement from religion; but among all the statements of this + theory the most noteworthy is that given by Lucretius in his great poem on + The Nature of Things. Despite its errors, it remains among the most + remarkable examples of prophetic insight in the history of our race. The + inspiration of Lucretius gave him almost miraculous glimpses of truth; his + view of the development of civilization from the rudest beginnings to the + height of its achievements is a wonderful growth, rooted in observation + and thought, branching forth into a multitude of striking facts and + fancies; and among these is the statement regarding the sequence of + inventions: + </p> + <p> + "Man's earliest arms were fingers, teeth, and nails, And stones and + fragments from the branching woods; Then copper next; and last, as latest + traced, The tyrant, iron." + </p> + <p> + Thus did the poet prophesy one of the most fruitful achievements of modern + science: the discovery of that series of epochs which has been so + carefully studied in our century. + </p> + <p> + Very striking, also, is the statement of Horace, though his idea is + evidently derived from Lucretius. He dwells upon man's first condition on + earth as low and bestial, and pictures him lurking in caves, progressing + from the use of his fists and nails, first to clubs, then to arms which he + had learned to forge, and, finally, to the invention of the names of + things, to literature, and to laws.(189) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (189) For the passage in Hesiod, as given, see the Works and Days, lines +109-120, in Banks's translation. As to Horace, see the Satires, i, 3, +99. As to the relation of the poetic account of the Fall in Genesis to +Chaldean myths, see Smith, Chaldean Account of Genesis, pp. 13, 17. For +a very instructive separation of the Jehovistic and Elohistic parts +of Genesis, with the account of the "Fall" as given in the former, see +Lenormant, La Genese, Paris, 1883, pp. 166-168; also Bacon, Genesis of +Genesis. Of the lines of Lucretius— +</pre> + <p> + "Arma antiqua, manus, ungues, dentesque fuerunt, Et lapides, et item + sylvarum fragmina rami, Posterius ferri vis est, aerisque reperta, Sed + prior aeris erat, quam ferri cognitus usus"—- + </p> + <p> + the translation is that of Good. For a more exact prose translation, see + Munro's Lucretius, fourth edition, which is much more careful, at least in + the proof-reading, than the first edition. As regards Lucretius's + propheitc insight into some of the greatest conclusions of modern science, + see Munro's translation and notes, fourth edition, book v, notes ii, p. + 335. On the relation of several passages in Horace to the ideas of + Lucretius, see Munro as above. For the passage from Luther, see the Table + Talk, Hazlitt's translation, p. 242. + </p> + <p> + During the mediaeval ages of faith this view was almost entirely obscured, + and at the Reformation it seemed likely to remain so. Typical of the + simplicity of belief in "the Fall" cherished among the Reformers is + Luther's declaration regarding Adam and Eve. He tells us, "they entered + into the garden about noon, and having a desire to eat, she took the + apple; then came the fall—according to our account at about two + o'clock." But in the revival of learning the old eclipsed truth + reappeared, and in the first part of the seventeenth century we find that, + among the crimes for which Vanini was sentenced at Toulouse to have his + tongue torn out and to be burned alive, was his belief that there is a + gradation extending upward from the lowest to the highest form of created + beings. + </p> + <p> + Yet, in the same century, the writings of Bodin, Bacon, Descartes, and + Pascal were evidently undermining the old idea of "the Fall." Bodin + especially, brilliant as were his services to orthodoxy, argued lucidly + against the doctrine of general human deterioration. + </p> + <p> + Early in the eighteenth century Vico presented the philosophy of history + as an upward movement of man out of animalism and barbarism. This idea + took firm hold upon human thought, and in the following centuries such men + as Lessing and Turgot gave new force to it. + </p> + <p> + The investigations of the last forty years have shown that Lucretius and + Horace were inspired prophets: what they saw by the exercise of reason + illumined by poetic genius, has been now thoroughly based upon facts + carefully ascertained and arranged—until Thomsen and Nilsson, the + northern archaeologists, have brought these prophecies to evident + fulfilment, by presenting a scientific classification dividing the age of + prehistoric man in various parts of the world between an old stone period, + a new stone period, a period of beaten copper, a period of bronze, and a + period of iron, and arraying vast masses of facts from all parts of the + world, fitting thoroughly into each other, strengthening each other, and + showing beyond a doubt that, instead of a FALL, there has been a RISE of + man, from the earliest indications in the Quaternary, or even, possibly, + in the Tertiary period.(190) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (190) For Vanini, see Topinard, Elements of Anthropologie, p. 52. For a +brief and careful summary of the agency of Eccard in Germany, Goguet +in France, Hoare in England, and others in various parts of Europe, as +regards this development of the scientific view during the eighteenth +century, see Mortillet, Le Prehistorique, Paris, 1885, chap. i. For the +agency of Bodin, Bacon, Descartes, and Pascal, see Flint, Philosophy +of History, introduction, pp. 28 et seq. For a shorter summary, +see Lubbock, Prehistoric Man. For the statements by the northern +archaeologists, see Nilsson, Worsaae, and the other main works cited in +this article. For a generous statement regarding the great services of +the Danish archaeologists in this field, see Quatrefages, introduction +to Cartailhac, Les Ages Prehistoriques de l'Espagne et du Portugal. +</pre> + <p> + The first blow at the fully developed doctrine of "the Fall" came, as we + have seen, from geology. According to that doctrine, as held quite + generally from its beginnings among the fathers and doctors of the + primitive Church down to its culmination in the minds of great Protestants + like John Wesley, the statement in our sacred books that "death entered + the world by sin" was taken as a historic fact, necessitating the + conclusion that, before the serpent persuaded Eve to eat of the forbidden + fruit, death on our planet was unknown. Naturally, when geology revealed, + in the strata of a period long before the coming of man on earth, a vast + multitude of carnivorous tribes fitted to destroy their fellow-creatures + on land and sea, and within the fossilized skeletons of many of these the + partially digested remains of animals, this doctrine was too heavy to be + carried, and it was quietly dropped. + </p> + <p> + But about the middle of the nineteenth century the doctrine of the rise of + man as opposed to the doctrine of his "fall" received a great accession of + strength from a source most unexpected. As we saw in the last chapter, the + facts proving the great antiquity of man foreshadowed a new and even more + remarkable idea regarding him. We saw, it is true, that the opponents of + Boucher de Perthes, while they could not deny his discovery of human + implements in the drift, were successful in securing a verdict of "Not + proven" as regarded his discovery of human bones; but their triumph was + short-lived. Many previous discoveries, little thought of up to that time, + began to be studied, and others were added which resulted not merely in + confirming the truth regarding the antiquity of man, but in establishing + another doctrine which the opponents of science regarded with vastly + greater dislike—the doctrine that man has not fallen from an + original high estate in which he was created about six thousand years ago, + but that, from a period vastly earlier than any warranted by the sacred + chronologists, he has been, in spite of lapses and deteriorations, rising. + </p> + <p> + A brief review of this new growth of truth may be useful. As early as 1835 + Prof. Jaeger had brought out from a quantity of Quaternary remains dug up + long before at Cannstadt, near Stuttgart, a portion of a human skull, + apparently of very low type. A battle raged about it for a time, but this + finally subsided, owing to uncertainties arising from the circumstances of + the discovery. + </p> + <p> + In 1856, in the Neanderthal, near Dusseldorf, among Quaternary remains + gathered on the floor of a grotto, another skull was found bearing the + same evidence of a low human type. As in the case of the Cannstadt skull, + this again was fiercely debated, and finally the questions regarding it + were allowed to remain in suspense. But new discoveries were made: at + Eguisheim, at Brux, at Spy, and elsewhere, human skulls were found of a + similarly low type; and, while each of the earlier discoveries was open to + debate, and either, had no other been discovered, might have been + considered an abnormal specimen, the combination of all these showed + conclusively that not only had a race of men existed at that remote + period, but that it was of a type as low as the lowest, perhaps below the + lowest, now known. + </p> + <p> + Research was now redoubled, and, as a result, human skulls and complete + skeletons of various types began to be discovered in the ancient deposits + of many other parts of the world, and especially in France, Belgium, + Germany, the Caucasus, Africa, and North and South America. + </p> + <p> + But soon began to emerge from all these discoveries a fact of enormous + importance. The skulls and bones found at Cro Magnon, Solutre, Furfooz, + Grenelle, and elsewhere, were compared, and it was thus made certain that + various races had already appeared and lived in various grades of + civilization, even in those exceedingly remote epochs; that even then + there were various strata of humanity ranging from races of a very low to + those of a very high type; and that upon any theory—certainly upon + the theory of the origin of mankind from a single pair—two things + were evident: first, that long, slow processes during vast periods of time + must have been required for the differentiation of these races, and for + the evolution of man up to the point where the better specimens show him, + certainly in the early Quaternary and perhaps in the Tertiary period; and, + secondly, that there had been from the first appearance of man, of which + we have any traces, an UPWARD tendency.(191) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (191) For Wesley's statement of the amazing consequences of the entrance +of death into the world by sin, see citations in his sermon on The Fall +of Man in the chapter on Geology. For Boucher de Perthes, see his Life +by Ledieu, especially chapters v and xix; also letters in the appendix; +also Les Antiquities Celtiques et Antediluviennes, as cited in previous +chapters of this work. For an account of the Neanderthal man and other +remains mentioned, see Quatrefages, Human Species, chap. xxvi; also +Mortillet, Le Prehistorique, Paris, 1885, pp. 232 et seq.; also other +writers cited in this chapter. For the other discoveries mentioned, see +the same sources. For an engraving of the skull and the restored human +face of the Neanderthal man, see Reinach, Antiquities Nationales, etc., +vol. i, p. 138. For the vast regions over which that early race spread, +see Quatrefages as above, p. 307. See also the same author, Histoire +Generale des Races Humaines, in the Bibliotheque Ethnologique, Paris, +1887, p. 4. In the vast mass of literature bearing on this subject, see +Quatrefages, Dupont, Reinach, Joly, Mortillet, Tylor, and Lubbock, in +works cited through these chapters. +</pre> + <p> + This second conclusion, the upward tendency of man from low beginnings, + was made more and more clear by bringing into relations with these remains + of human bodies and of extinct animals the remains of human handiwork. As + stated in the last chapter, the river drift and bone caves in Great + Britain, France, and other parts of the world, revealed a progression, + even in the various divisions of the earliest Stone period; for, beginning + at the very lowest strata of these remains, on the floors of the caverns, + associated mainly with the bones of extinct animals, such as the cave + bear, the hairy elephant, and the like, were the rudest implements then, + in strata above these, sealed in the stalagmite of the cavern floors, + lying with the bones of animals extinct but more recent, stone implements + were found, still rude, but, as a rule, of an improved type; and, finally, + in a still higher stratum, associated with bones of animals like the + reindeer and bison, which, though not extinct, have departed to other + climates, were rude stone implements, on the whole of a still better + workmanship. Such was the foreshadowing, even at that early rude Stone + period, of the proofs that the tendency of man has been from his earliest + epoch and in all parts of the world, as a rule, upward. + </p> + <p> + But this rule was to be much further exemplified. About 1850, while the + French and English geologists were working more especially among the + relics of the drift and cave periods, noted archaeologists of the North—Forchammer, + Steenstrup, and Worsaae—were devoting themselves to the + investigation of certain remains upon the Danish Peninsula. These remains + were of two kinds: first, there were vast shell-heaps or accumulations of + shells and other refuse cast aside by rude tribes which at some unknown + age in the past lived on the shores of the Baltic, principally on + shellfish. That these shell-heaps were very ancient was evident: the + shells of oysters and the like found in them were far larger than any now + found on those coasts; their size, so far from being like that of the + corresponding varieties which now exist in the brackish waters of the + Baltic, was in every case like that of those varieties which only thrive + in the waters of the open salt sea. Here was a clear indication that at + the time when man formed these shell-heaps those coasts were in far more + direct communication with the salt sea than at present, and that + sufficient time must have elapsed since that period to have wrought + enormous changes in sea and land throughout those regions. + </p> + <p> + Scattered through these heaps were found indications of a grade of + civilization when man still used implements of stone, but implements and + weapons which, though still rude, showed a progress from those of the + drift and early cave period, some of them being of polished stone. + </p> + <p> + With these were other evidences that civilization had progressed. With + implements rude enough to have survived from early periods, other + implements never known in the drift and bone caves began to appear, and, + though there were few if any bones of other domestic animals, the remains + of dogs were found; everything showed that there had been a progress in + civilization between the former Stone epoch and this. + </p> + <p> + The second series of discoveries in Scandinavia was made in the peat-beds: + these were generally formed in hollows or bowls varying in depth from ten + to thirty feet, and a section of them, like a section of the deposits in + the bone caverns, showed a gradual evolution of human culture. The lower + strata in these great bowls were found to be made up chiefly of mosses and + various plants matted together with the trunks of fallen trees, sometimes + of very large diameter; and the botanical examination of the lowest layer + of these trees and plants in the various bowls revealed a most important + fact: for this layer, the first in point of time, was always of the Scotch + fir—which now grows nowhere in the Danish islands, and can not be + made to grow anywhere in them—and of plants which are now extinct in + these regions, but have retreated within the arctic circle. Coming up from + the bottom of these great bowls there was found above the first layer a + second, in which were matted together masses of oak trees of different + varieties; these, too, were relics of a bygone epoch, since the oak has + almost entirely disappeared from Denmark. Above these came a third stratum + made up of fallen beech trees; and the beech is now, and has been since + the beginning of recorded history, the most common tree of the Danish + Peninsula. + </p> + <p> + Now came a second fact of the utmost importance as connected with the + first. Scattered, as a rule, through the lower of these deposits, that of + the extinct fir trees and plants, were found implements and weapons of + smooth stone; in the layer of oak trees were found implements of bronze; + and among the layer of beeches were found implements and weapons of iron. + </p> + <p> + The general result of these investigations in these two sources, the shell + mounds and the peat deposits, was the same: the first civilization + evidenced in them was marked by the use of stone implements more or less + smooth, showing a progress from the earlier rude Stone period made known + by the bone caves; then came a later progress to a higher civilization, + marked by the use of bronze implements; and, finally, a still higher + development when iron began to be used. + </p> + <p> + The labours of the Danish archaeologists have resulted in the formation of + a great museum at Copenhagen, and on the specimens they have found, + coupled with those of the drift and bone caves, is based the + classification between the main periods or divisions in the evolution of + the human race above referred to. + </p> + <p> + It was not merely in Scandinavian lands that these results were reached; + substantially the same discoveries were made in Ireland and France, in + Sardinia and Portugal, in Japan and in Brazil, in Cuba and in the United + States; in fact, as a rule, in nearly every part of the world which was + thoroughly examined.(192) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (192) For the general subject, see Mortillet, Le Prehistorique, p. 498, +et passim. For examples of the rude stone implements, improving as we go +from earlier to later layers in the bone caves, see Boyd Hawkins, Early +Man in Britain, chap. vii, p. 186; also Quatrefages, Human Species, New +York, 1879, pp. 305 et seq. An interesting gleam of light is thrown on +the subject in De Baye, Grottes Prehistoriques de la Marne, pp. 31 et +seq.; also Evans, as cited in the previous chapter. For the more recent +investigations in the Danish shell-heaps, see Boyd Dawkins, Early Man in +Britain, pp. 303, 304. For these evidences of advanced civilization in +the shell-heaps, see Mortillet, p. 498. He, like Nilsson, says that only +the bones of the dog were found; but compare Dawkins, p. 305. For the +very full list of these discoveries, with their bearing on each other, +see Mortillet, p. 499. As to those in Scandanavian countries, see +Nilsson, The Primitive Inhabitants of Scandanavia, third edition, with +Introduction by Lubbock, London, 1868; also the Pre-History of the +North, by Worsaae, English translation, London, 1886. For shell-mounds +and their contents in the Spanish Peninsula, see Cartailhac's greater +work already cited. For summary of such discoveries throughout the +world, see Mortillet, Le Prehistorique, pp. 497 et seq. +</pre> + <p> + But from another quarter came a yet more striking indication of this same + evolution. As far back as the year 1829 there were discovered, in the Lake + of Zurich, piles and other antiquities indicating a former existence of + human dwellings, standing in the water at some distance from the shore; + but the usual mixture of thoughtlessness and dread of new ideas seems to + have prevailed, and nothing was done until about 1853, when new + discoveries of the same kind were followed up vigorously, and Rutimeyer, + Keller, Troyon, and others showed not only in the Lake of Zurich, but in + many other lakes in Switzerland, remains of former habitations, and, in + the midst of these, great numbers of relics, exhibiting the grade of + civilization which those lake-dwellers had attained. + </p> + <p> + Here, too, were accumulated proofs of the upward tendency of the human + race. Implements of polished stone, bone, leather, pottery of various + grades, woven cloth, bones of several kinds of domestic animals, various + sorts of grain, bread which had been preserved by charring, and a + multitude of evidences of progress never found among the earlier, ruder + relics of civilization, showed yet more strongly that man had arrived here + at a still higher stage than his predecessor of the drift, cave, and + shell-heap periods, and had gone on from better to better. + </p> + <p> + Very striking evidences of this upward tendency were found in each class + of implements. As by comparing the chipped flint implements of the lower + and earlier strata in the cave period with those of the later and upper + strata we saw progress, so, in each of the periods of polished stone, + bronze, and iron, we see, by similar comparisons, a steady progress from + rude to perfected implements; and especially is this true in the remains + of the various lake-dwellings, for among these can be traced out constant + increase in the variety of animals domesticated, and gradual improvements + in means of subsistence and in ways of living. + </p> + <p> + Incidentally, too, a fact, at first sight of small account, but on + reflection exceedingly important, was revealed. The earlier bronze + implements were frequently found to imitate in various minor respects + implements of stone; in other words, forms were at first given to bronze + implements natural in working stone, but not natural in working bronze. + This showed the DIRECTION of the development—that it was upward from + stone to bronze, not downward from bronze to stone; that it was progress + rather than decline. + </p> + <p> + These investigations were supplemented by similar researches elsewhere. In + many other parts of the world it was found that lake-dwellers had existed + in different grades of civilization, but all within a certain range, + intermediate between the cave-dwellers and the historic period. To explain + this epoch of the lake-dwellers, history came in with the account given by + Herodotus of the lake-dwellings on Lake Prasias, which gave protection + from the armies of Persia. Still more important, Comparative Ethnography + showed that to-day, in various parts of the world, especially in New + Guinea and West Africa, races of men are living in lake-dwellings built + upon piles, and with a range of implements and weapons strikingly like + many of those discovered in these ancient lake deposits of Switzerland. + </p> + <p> + In Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Scotland, and other + countries, remains of a different sort were also found, throwing light on + this progress. The cromlechs, cranogs, mounds, and the like, though some + of them indicate the work of weaker tribes pressed upon by stronger, show, + as a rule, the same upward tendency. + </p> + <p> + At a very early period in the history of these discoveries, various + attempts were made—nominally in the interest of religion, but really + in the interest of sundry creeds and catechisms framed when men knew + little or nothing of natural laws—to break the force of such + evidences of the progress and development of the human race from lower to + higher. Out of all the earlier efforts two may be taken as fairly typical, + for they exhibit the opposition to science as developed under two + different schools of theology, each working in its own way. The first of + these shows great ingenuity and learning, and is presented by Mr. Southall + in his book, published in 1875, entitled The Recent Origin of the World. + In this he grapples first of all with the difficulties presented by the + early date of Egyptian civilization, and the keynote of his argument is + the statement made by an eminent Egyptologist, at a period before modern + archaeological discoveries were well understood, that "Egypt laughs the + idea of a rude Stone age, a polished Stone age, a Bronze age, an Iron age, + to scorn." + </p> + <p> + Mr. Southall's method was substantially that of the late excellent Mr. + Gosse in geology. Mr. Gosse, as the readers of this work may remember, + felt obliged, in the supposed interest of Genesis, to urge that safety to + men's souls might be found in believing that, six thousand years ago, the + Almighty, for some inscrutable purpose, suddenly set Niagara pouring very + near the spot where it is pouring now; laid the various strata, and + sprinkled the fossils through them like plums through a pudding; scratched + the glacial grooves upon the rocks, and did a vast multitude of things, + subtle and cunning, little and great, in all parts of the world, required + to delude geologists of modern times into the conviction that all these + things were the result of a steady progress through long epochs. On a + similar plan, Mr. Southall proposed, at the very beginning of his book, as + a final solution of the problem, the declaration that Egypt, with its high + civilization in the time of Mena, with its races, classes, institutions, + arrangements, language, monuments—all indicating an evolution + through a vast previous history—was a sudden creation which came + fully made from the hands of the Creator. To use his own words, "The + Egyptians had no Stone age, and were born civilized." + </p> + <p> + There is an old story that once on a time a certain jovial King of France, + making a progress through his kingdom, was received at the gates of a + provincial town by the mayor's deputy, who began his speech on this wise: + "May it please your Majesty, there are just thirteen reasons why His + Honour the Mayor can not be present to welcome you this morning. The first + of these reasons is that he is dead." On this the king graciously declared + that this first reason was sufficient, and that he would not trouble the + mayor's deputy for the twelve others. + </p> + <p> + So with Mr. Southall's argument: one simple result of scientific research + out of many is all that it is needful to state, and this is, that in these + later years we have a new and convincing evidence of the existence of + prehistoric man in Egypt in his earliest, rudest beginnings; the very same + evidence which we find in all other parts of the world which have been + carefully examined. This evidence consists of stone implements and weapons + which have been found in Egypt in such forms, at such points, and in such + positions that when studied in connection with those found in all other + parts of the world, from New Jersey to California, from France to India, + and from England to the Andaman Islands, they force upon us the conviction + that civilization in Egypt, as in all other parts of the world, was + developed by the same slow process of evolution from the rudest + beginnings. + </p> + <p> + It is true that men learned in Egyptology had discouraged the idea of an + earlier Stone age in Egypt, and that among these were Lepsius and Brugsch; + but these men were not trained in prehistoric archaeology; their devotion + to the study of the monuments of Egyptian civilization had evidently drawn + them away from sympathy, and indeed from acquaintance, with the work of + men like Boucher de Perthes, Lartet, Nilsson, Troyon, and Dawkins. But a + new era was beginning. In 1867 Worsaae called attention to the prehistoric + implements found on the borders of Egypt; two years later Arcelin + discussed such stone implements found beneath the soil of Sakkara and + Gizeh, the very focus of the earliest Egyptian civilization; in the same + year Hamy and Lenormant found such implements washed out from the depths + higher up the Nile at Thebes, near the tombs of the kings; and in the + following year they exhibited more flint implements found at various other + places. Coupled with these discoveries was the fact that Horner and Linant + found a copper knife at twenty-four feet, and pottery at sixty feet, below + the surface. In 1872 Dr. Reil, director of the baths at Helouan, near + Cairo, discovered implements of chipped flint; and in 1877. Dr. Jukes + Brown made similar discoveries in that region. In 1878 Oscar Fraas, + summing up the question, showed that the stone implements were mainly such + as are found in the prehistoric deposits of other countries, and that, + Zittel having found them in the Libyan Desert, far from the oases, there + was reason to suppose that these implements were used before the region + became a desert and before Egypt was civilized. Two years later Dr. Mook, + of Wurzburg, published a work giving the results of his investigations, + with careful drawings of the rude stone implements discovered by him in + the upper Nile Valley, and it was evident that, while some of these + implements differed slightly from those before known, the great mass of + them were of the character so common in the prehistoric deposits of other + parts of the world. + </p> + <p> + A yet more important contribution to this mass of facts was made by Prof. + Henry Haynes, of Boston, who in the winter of 1877 and 1878 began a very + thorough investigation of the subject, and discovered, a few miles east of + Cairo, many flint implements. The significance of Haynes's discoveries was + twofold: First, there were, among these, stone axes like those found in + the French drift beds of St. Acheul, showing that the men who made or + taught men how to make these in Egypt were passing through the same phase + of savagery as that of Quaternary France; secondly, he found a workshop + for making these implements, proving that these flint implements were not + brought into Egypt by invaders, but were made to meet the necessities of + the country. From this first field Prof. Haynes went to Helouan, north of + Cairo, and there found, as Dr. Reil had done, various worked flints, some + of them like those discovered by M. Riviere in the caves of southern + France; thence he went up the Nile to Luxor, the site of ancient Thebes, + began a thorough search in the Tertiary limestone hills, and found + multitudes of chipped stone implements, some of them, indeed, of original + forms, but most of forms common in other parts of the world under similar + circumstances, some of the chipped stone axes corresponding closely to + those found in the drift beds of northern France. + </p> + <p> + All this seemed to show conclusively that, long ages before the earliest + period of Egyptian civilization of which the monuments of the first + dynasties give us any trace, mankind in the Nile Valley was going through + the same slow progress from the period when, standing just above the + brutes, he defended himself with implements of rudely chipped stone. + </p> + <p> + But in 1881 came discoveries which settled the question entirely. In that + year General Pitt-Rivers, a Fellow of the Royal Society and President of + the Anthropological Institute, and J. F. Campbell, Fellow of the Royal + Geographical Society of England, found implements not only in alluvial + deposits, associated with the bones of the zebra, hyena, and other animals + which have since retreated farther south, but, at Djebel Assas, near + Thebes, they found implements of chipped flint in the hard, stratified + gravel, from six and a half to ten feet below the surface; relics + evidently, as Mr. Campbell says, "beyond calculation older than the oldest + Egyptian temples and tombs." They certainly proved that Egyptian + civilization had not issued in its completeness, and all at once, from the + hand of the Creator in the time of Mena. Nor was this all. Investigators + of the highest character and ability—men like Hull and Flinders + Petrie—revealed geological changes in Egypt requiring enormous + periods of time, and traces of man's handiwork dating from a period when + the waters in the Nile Valley extended hundreds of feet above the present + level. Thus was ended the contention of Mr. Southall. + </p> + <p> + Still another attack upon the new scientific conclusions came from France, + when in 1883 the Abbe Hamard, Priest of the Oratory, published his Age of + Stone and Primitive Man. He had been especially vexed at the arrangement + of prehistoric implements by periods at the Paris Exposition of 1878; he + bitterly complains of this as having an anti-Christian tendency, and rails + at science as "the idol of the day." He attacks Mortillet, one of the + leaders in French archaeology, with a great display of contempt; speaks of + the "venom" in books on prehistoric man generally; complains that the + Church is too mild and gentle with such monstrous doctrines; bewails the + concessions made to science by some eminent preachers; and foretells his + own martyrdom at the hands of men of science. + </p> + <p> + Efforts like this accomplished little, and a more legitimate attempt was + made to resist the conclusions of archaeology by showing that knives of + stone were used in obedience to a sacred ritual in Egypt for embalming, + and in Judea for circumcision, and that these flint knives might have had + this later origin. But the argument against the conclusions drawn from + this view was triple: First, as we have seen, not only stone knives, but + axes and other implements of stone similar to those of a prehistoric + period in western Europe were discovered; secondly, these implements were + discovered in the hard gravel drift of a period evidently far earlier than + that of Mena; and, thirdly, the use of stone implements in Egyptian and + Jewish sacred functions within the historic period, so far from weakening + the force of the arguments for the long and slow development of Egyptian + civilization from the men who used rude flint implements to the men who + built and adorned the great temples of the early dynasties, is really an + argument in favour of that long evolution. A study of comparative + ethnology has made it clear that the sacred stone knives and implements of + the Egyptian and Jewish priestly ritual were natural survivals of that + previous period. For sacrificial or ritual purposes, the knife of stone + was considered more sacred than the knife of bronze or iron, simply + because it was ancient; just as to-day, in India, Brahman priests kindle + the sacred fire not with matches or flint and steel, but by a process + found in the earliest, lowest stages of human culture—by violently + boring a pointed stick into another piece of wood until a spark comes; and + just as to-day, in Europe and America, the architecture of the Middle Ages + survives as a special religious form in the erection of our most recent + churches, and to such an extent that thousands on thousands of us feel + that we can not worship fitly unless in the midst of windows, decorations, + vessels, implements, vestments, and ornaments, no longer used for other + purposes, but which have survived in sundry branches of the Christian + Church, and derived a special sanctity from the fact that they are of + ancient origin. + </p> + <p> + Taking, then, the whole mass of testimony together, even though a + plausible or very strong argument against single evidences may be made + here and there, the force of its combined mass remains, and leaves both + the vast antiquity of man and the evolution of civilization from its + lowest to its highest forms, as proved by the prehistoric remains of Egypt + and so many other countries in all parts of the world, beyond a reasonable + doubt. Most important of all, the recent discoveries in Assyria have + thrown a new light upon the evolution of the dogma of "the fall of man." + Reverent scholars like George Smith, Sayce, Delitzsch, Jensen, Schrader, + and their compeers have found in the Ninevite records the undoubted source + of that form of the fall legend which was adopted by the Hebrews and by + them transmitted to Christianity.(193) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (193) For Mr. Southall's views, see his Recent Origin of Man, p. 20 +and elsewhere. For Mr. Gosse'e views, see his Omphalos as cited in the +chapter on Geology in this work. For a summary of the work of Arcelin, +Hamy, Lenormant, Richard, Lubbock, Mook, and Haynes, see Mortillet, Le +Prehistorique, passim. As to Zittel's discovery, see Oscar Fraas's Aus +dem Orient, Stuttgart, 1878. As to the striking similarities of the stone +implements found in Egypt with those found in the drift and bone +caves, see Mook's monograph, Wurzburg, 1880, cited in the next chapter, +especially Plates IX, XI, XII. For even more striking reproductions +of photographs showing this remarkable similarity between Egyptian +and European chipped stone remains, see H. W. Haynes, Palaeolithic +Implements in Upper Egypt, Boston, 1881. See also Evans, Ancient Stone +Implements, chap. i, pp. 8, 9, 44, 102, 316, 329. As to stone implements +used by priests of Jehovah, priests of Baal, priests of Moloch, priests +of Odin, and Egyptian priests, as religious survivals, see Cartailhac, +as above, 6 and 7; also Lartet, in De Luynes, Expedition to the Dead +Sea; also Nilsson, Primitive Inhabitants of Scandanavia, pp. 96, 97; +also Sayce, Herodotus, p. 171, note. For the discoveries by Pitt-Rivers, +see the Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and +Ireland for 1882, vol. xi, pp. 382 et seq.; and for Campbell's decision +regarding them, see ibid., pp. 396, 397. For facts summed up in the +words, "It is most probable that Egypt at a remote period passed like +many other countries through its stone period," see Hilton Price, F. S. +A., F. G. S., paper in the Journal of the Archaeological Institute of +Great Britain and Ireland for 1884, p. 56. Specimens of Palaeolithic +implements from Egypt—knives, arrowheads, spearheads, flakes, and +the like, both of peculiar and ordinary forms—may be seen in various +museums, but especially in that of Prof. Haynes, of Boston. Some +interesting light is also thrown into the subject by the specimens +obtained by General Wilson and deposited in the Smithsonian Institution +at Washington. For Abbe Hamard's attack, see his L'Age de la Pierre et +L'Homme Primitif, Paris, 1883—especially his preface. For the stone +weapon found in the high drift behind Esneh, see Flinders Petrie, +History of Egypt, chap. i. Of these discoveries by Pitt-Rivers and +others, Maspero appears to know nothing. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IX. THE "FALL OF MAN" AND ETHNOLOGY. + </h2> + <p> + We have seen that, closely connected with the main lines of investigation + in archaeology and anthropology, there were other researches throwing much + light on the entire subject. In a previous chapter we saw especially that + Lafitau and Jussieu were among the first to collect and compare facts + bearing on the natural history of man, gathered by travellers in various + parts of the earth, thus laying foundations for the science of comparative + ethnology. It was soon seen that ethnology had most important bearings + upon the question of the material, intellectual, moral, and religious + evolution of the human race; in every civilized nation, therefore, + appeared scholars who began to study the characteristics of various groups + of men as ascertained from travellers, and to compare the results thus + gained with each other and with those obtained by archaeology. + </p> + <p> + Thus, more and more clear became the evidences that the tendency of the + race has been upward from low beginnings. It was found that groups of men + still existed possessing characteristics of those in the early periods of + development to whom the drift and caves and shell-heaps and pile-dwellings + bear witness; groups of men using many of the same implements and weapons, + building their houses in the same way, seeking their food by the same + means, enjoying the same amusements, and going through the same general + stages of culture; some being in a condition corresponding to the earlier, + some to the later, of those early periods. + </p> + <p> + From all sides thus came evidence that we have still upon the earth + examples of all the main stages in the development of human civilization; + that from the period when man appears little above the brutes, and with + little if any religion in any accepted sense of the word, these examples + can be arranged in an ascending series leading to the highest planes which + humanity has reached; that philosophic observers may among these examples + study existing beliefs, usages, and institutions back through earlier and + earlier forms, until, as a rule, the whole evolution can be easily divined + if not fully seen. Moreover, the basis of the whole structure became more + and more clear: the fact that "the lines of intelligence have always been + what they are, and have always operated as they do now; that man has + progressed from the simple to the complex, from the particular to the + general." + </p> + <p> + As this evidence from ethnology became more and more strong, its + significance to theology aroused attention, and naturally most determined + efforts were made to break its force. On the Continent the two great + champions of the Church in this field were De Maistre and De Bonald; but + the two attempts which may be especially recalled as the most influential + among English-speaking peoples were those of Whately, Archbishop of + Dublin, and the Duke of Argyll. + </p> + <p> + First in the combat against these new deductions of science was Whately. + He was a strong man, whose breadth of thought and liberality in practice + deserve all honour; but these very qualities drew upon him the distrust of + his orthodox brethren; and, while his writings were powerful in the first + half of the present century to break down many bulwarks of unreason, he + seems to have been constantly in fear of losing touch with the Church, and + therefore to have promptly attacked some scientific reasonings, which, had + he been a layman, not holding a brief for the Church, he would probably + have studied with more care and less prejudice. He was not slow to see the + deeper significance of archaeology and ethnology in their relations to the + theological conception of "the Fall," and he set the battle in array + against them. + </p> + <p> + His contention was, to use his own words, that "no community ever did or + ever can emerge unassisted by external helps from a state of utter + barbarism into anything that can be called civilization"; and that, in + short, all imperfectly civilized, barbarous, and savage races are but + fallen descendants of races more fully civilized. This view was urged with + his usual ingenuity and vigour, but the facts proved too strong for him: + they made it clear, first, that many races were without simple + possessions, instruments, and arts which never, probably, could have been + lost if once acquired—as, for example, pottery, the bow for + shooting, various domesticated animals, spinning, the simplest principles + of agriculture, household economy, and the like; and, secondly, it was + shown as a simple matter of fact that various savage and barbarous tribes + HAD raised themselves by a development of means which no one from outside + could have taught them; as in the cultivation and improvement of various + indigenous plants, such as the potato and Indian corn among the Indians of + North America; in the domestication of various animals peculiar to their + own regions, such as the llama among the Indians of south America; in the + making of sundry fabrics out of materials and by processes not found among + other nations, such as the bark cloth of the Polynesians; and in the + development of weapons peculiar to sundry localities, but known in no + others, such as the boomerang in Australia. + </p> + <p> + Most effective in bringing out the truth were such works as those of Sir + John Lubbock and Tylor; and so conclusive were they that the arguments of + Whately were given up as untenable by the other of the two great champions + above referred to, and an attempt was made by him to form the diminishing + number of thinking men supporting the old theological view on a new line + of defence. + </p> + <p> + This second champion, the Duke of Argyll, was a man of wide knowledge and + strong powers in debate, whose high moral sense was amply shown in his + adhesion to the side of the American Union in the struggle against + disunion and slavery, despite the overwhelming majority against him in the + high aristocracy to which he belonged. As an honest man and close thinker, + the duke was obliged to give up completely the theological view of the + antiquity of man. The whole biblical chronology as held by the universal + Church, "always, everywhere, and by all," he sacrificed, and gave all his + powers in this field to support the theory of "the Fall." Noblesse oblige: + the duke and his ancestors had been for centuries the chief pillars of the + Church of Scotland, and it was too much to expect that he could break away + from a tenet which forms really its "chief cornerstone." + </p> + <p> + Acknowledging the insufficiency of Archbishop Whately's argument, the duke + took the ground that the lower, barbarous, savage, brutal races were the + remains of civilized races which, in the struggle for existence, had been + pushed and driven off to remote and inclement parts of the earth, where + the conditions necessary to a continuance in their early civilization were + absent; that, therefore, the descendants of primeval, civilized men + degenerated and sank in the scale of culture. To use his own words, the + weaker races were "driven by the stronger to the woods and rocks," so that + they became "mere outcasts of the human race." + </p> + <p> + In answer to this, while it was conceded, first, that there have been + examples of weaker tribes sinking in the scale of culture after escaping + from the stronger into regions unfavourable to civilization, and, + secondly, that many powerful nations have declined and decayed, it was + shown that the men in the most remote and unfavourable regions have not + always been the lowest in the scale; that men have been frequently found + "among the woods and rocks" in a higher state of civilization than on the + fertile plains, such examples being cited as Mexico, Peru, and even + Scotland; and that, while there were many examples of special and local + decline, overwhelming masses of facts point to progress as a rule. + </p> + <p> + The improbability, not to say impossibility, of many of the conclusions + arrived at by the duke appeared more and more strongly as more became + known of the lower tribes of mankind. It was necessary on his theory to + suppose many things which our knowledge of the human race absolutely + forbids us to believe: for example, it was necessary to suppose that the + Australians or New Zealanders, having once possessed so simple and + convenient an art as that of the potter, had lost every trace of it; and + that the same tribes, having once had so simple a means of saving labour + as the spindle or small stick weighted at one end for spinning, had given + it up and gone back to twisting threads with the hand. In fact, it was + necessary to suppose that one of the main occupations of man from "the + beginning" had been the forgetting of simple methods, processes, and + implements which all experience in the actual world teaches us are never + entirely forgotten by peoples who have once acquired them. + </p> + <p> + Some leading arguments of the duke were overthrown by simple statements of + fact. Thus, his instance of the Eskimo as pushed to the verge of habitable + America, and therefore living in the lowest depths of savagery, which, + even if it were true, by no means proved a general rule, was deprived of + its force by the simple fact that the Eskimos are by no means the lowest + race on the American continent, and that various tribes far more centrally + and advantageously placed, as, for instance, those in Brazil, are really + inferior to them in the scale of culture. Again, his statement that "in + Africa there appear to be no traces of any time when the natives were not + acquainted with the use of iron," is met by the fact that from the Nile + Valley to the Cape of Good Hope we find, wherever examination has been + made, the same early stone implements which in all other parts of the + world precede the use of iron, some of which would not have been made had + their makers possessed iron. The duke also tried to show that there were + no distinctive epochs of stone, bronze, and iron, by adducing the fact + that some stone implements are found even in some high civilizations. This + is indeed a fact. We find some few European peasants to-day using stone + mallet-heads; but this proves simply that the old stone mallet-heads have + survived as implements cheap and effective. + </p> + <p> + The argument from Comparative Ethnology in support of the view that the + tendency of mankind is upward has received strength from many sources. + Comparative Philology shows that in the less civilized, barbarous, and + savage races childish forms of speech prevail—frequent + reduplications and the like, of which we have survivals in the later and + even in the most highly developed languages. In various languages, too, we + find relics of ancient modes of thought in the simplest words and + expressions used for arithmetical calculations. Words and phrases for this + purpose are frequently found to be derived from the words for hands, feet, + fingers, and toes, just as clearly as in our own language some of our + simplest measures of length are shown by their names to have been measures + of parts of the human body, as the cubit, the foot, and the like, and + therefore to date from a time when exactness was not required. To add + another out of many examples, it is found to-day that various rude nations + go through the simplest arithmetical processes by means of pebbles. Into + our own language, through the Latin, has come a word showing that our + distant progenitors reckoned in this way: the word CALCULATE gives us an + absolute proof of this. According to the theory of the Duke of Argyll, men + ages ago used pebbles (CALCULI) in performing the simplest arithmetical + calculations because we to-day "CALCULATE." No reduction to absurdity + could be more thorough. The simple fact must be that we "calculate" + because our remote ancestors used pebbles in their arithmetic. + </p> + <p> + Comparative Literature and Folklore also show among peoples of a low + culture to-day childish modes of viewing nature, and childish ways of + expressing the relations of man to nature, such as clearly survive from a + remote ancestry; noteworthy among these are the beliefs in witches and + fairies, and multitudes of popular and poetic expressions in the most + civilized nations. + </p> + <p> + So, too, Comparative Ethnography, the basis of Ethnology, shows in + contemporary barbarians and savages a childish love of playthings and + games, of which we have many survivals. + </p> + <p> + All these facts, which were at first unobserved or observed as matters of + no significance, have been brought into connection with a fact in biology + acknowledged alike by all important schools; by Agassiz on one hand and by + Darwin on the other—namely, as stated by Agassiz, that "the young + states of each species and group resemble older forms of the same group," + or, as stated by Darwin, that "in two or more groups of animals, however + much they may at first differ from each other in structure and habits, if + they pass through closely similar embryonic stages, we may feel almost + assured that they have descended from the same parent form, and are + therefore closely related."(194) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (194) For the stone forms given to early bronze axes, etc., see +Nilsson, Primitive Inhabitants of Scandanavia, London, 1868, Lubbock's +Introduction, p. 31; and for plates, see Lubbock's Prehistoric Man, +chap. ii; also Cartailhac, Les Ages Prehistoriques de l'Espagne et du +Portugal, p. 227. Also Keller, Lake Dwellings; also Troyon, Habitations +Lacustres; also Boyd Dawkins, Early Man in Great Britain, p. 191; also +Lubbock, p. 6; also Lyell, Antiquity of Man,chap. ii. For the cranogs, +etc., in the north of Europe, see Munro, Ancient Scottish Lake +Dwellings, Edinburgh, 1882. For mounds and greater stone constructions +in the extreme south of Europe, see Cartailhac's work on Spain and +Portugal above cited, part iii, chap. iii. For the source of Mr. +Southall's contention, see Brugsch, Egypt of the Pharoahs. For the two +sides of the question whether in the lower grades of savagery there is +really any recognition of a superior power, or anything which can +be called, in any accepted sense, religion, compare Quatrefages with +Lubbock, in works already cited. For a striking but rather ad captandum +effort to show that there is a moral and religious sense in the very +lowest of Australian tribes, see one of the discourses of Archbishop +Vaughn on Science and Religion, Baltimore, 1879. For one out of +multitiudes of striking and instructive resemblances in ancient +stone implements and those now in use among sundry savage tribes, +see comparison between old Scandanavian arrowheads and those recently +brought from Tierra del Fuego, in Nilsson, as above, especially in Plate +V. For a brief and admirable statement of the arguments on both sides, +see Sir J. Lubbock's Dundee paper, given in the appendix to the American +edition of his Origin of Civilization, etc. For the general argument +referred to between Whately and the Duke of Argyll on one side, and +Lubbock on the other, see Lubbock's Dundee paper as above cited; Tylor, +Early History of Mankind, especially p. 193; and the Duke of Argyll, +Primeval Man, part iv. For difficulties of savages in arithmetic, see +Lubbock, as above, pp. 459 et seq. For a very temperate and judicial +view of the whole question, see Tylor as above, chaps. vii and xiii. For +a brief summary of the scientific position regarding the stagnation +and deterioration of races, resulting in the statement that such +deterioration "in no way contradicts the theory that civilization itself +is developed from low to high stages," see Tylor, Anthropology, chap. i. +For striking examples of the testimony of language to upward progress, +see Tylor, chap. xii. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER X. THE "FALL OF MAN" AND HISTORY. + </h2> + <p> + The history of art, especially as shown by architecture, in the noblest + monuments of the most enlightened nations of antiquity; gives abundant + proofs of the upward tendency of man from the rudest and simplest + beginnings. Many columns of early Egyptian temples or tombs are but + bundles of Nile reeds slightly conventionalized in stone; the temples of + Greece, including not only the earliest forms, but the Parthenon itself, + while in parts showing an evolution out of Egyptian and Assyrian + architecture, exhibit frequent reminiscences and even imitations of + earlier constructions in wood; the medieval cathedrals, while evolved out + of Roman and Byzantine structures, constantly show unmistakable survivals + of prehistoric construction. (195) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (195) As to evolution in architecture, and especially of Greek forms +and ornaments out of Egyptian and Assyrian, with survivals in stone +architecture of forms obtained in Egypt when reeds were used, and in +Greece when wood construction prevailed, see Fergusson's Handbook of +Architecture, vol. i, pp. 100, 228, 233, and elsewhere; also Otfried +Muller, Ancient Art and its Remains, English translation, London, +1852, pp. 219, passim. For a very brief but thorough statement, see A. +Magnard's paper in the Proceedings of the American Oriental Society, +October, 1889, entitled Reminiscences of Egypt in Doric Architecture. +On the general subject, see Hommel, Babylonien, ch. i, and Meyer, +Alterthum, i, S 199. +</pre> + <p> + So, too, general history has come in, illustrating the unknown from the + known: the development of man in the prehistoric period from his + development within historic times. Nothing is more evident from history + than the fact that weaker bodies of men driven out by stronger do not + necessarily relapse into barbarism, but frequently rise, even under the + most unfavourable circumstances, to a civilization equal or superior to + that from which they have been banished. Out of very many examples showing + this law of upward development, a few may be taken as typical. The Slavs, + who sank so low under the pressure of stronger races that they gave the + modern world a new word to express the most hopeless servitude, have + developed powerful civilizations peculiar to themselves; the barbarian + tribes who ages ago took refuge amid the sand-banks and morasses of + Holland, have developed one of the world's leading centres of + civilization; the wretched peasants who about the fifth century took + refuge from invading hordes among the lagoons and mud banks of Venetia, + developed a power in art, arms, and politics which is among the wonders of + human history; the Puritans, driven from the civilization of Great Britain + to the unfavourable climate, soil, and circumstances of early New England,—the + Huguenots, driven from France, a country admirably fitted for the highest + growth of civilization, to various countries far less fitted for such + growth,—the Irish peasantry, driven in vast numbers from their own + island to other parts of the world on the whole less fitted to them—all + are proofs that, as a rule, bodies of men once enlightened, when driven to + unfavourable climates and brought under the most depressing circumstances, + not only retain what enlightenment they have, but go on increasing it. + Besides these, we have such cases as those of criminals banished to + various penal colonies, from whose descendants has been developed a better + morality; and of pirates, like those of the Bounty, whose descendants, in + a remote Pacific island, became sober, steady citizens. Thousands of + examples show the prevalence of this same rule—that men in masses do + not forget the main gains of their civilization, and that, in spite of + deteriorations, their tendency is upward. + </p> + <p> + Another class of historic facts also testifies in the most striking manner + to this same upward tendency: the decline and destruction of various + civilizations brilliant but hopelessly vitiated. These catastrophes are + seen more and more to be but steps in, this development. The crumbling + away of the great ancient civilizations based upon despotism, whether the + despotism of monarch, priest, or mob—the decline and fall of Roman + civilization, for example, which, in his most remarkable generalization, + Guizot has shown to have been necessary to the development of the richer + civilization of modern Europe; the terrible struggle and loss of the + Crusades, which once appeared to be a mere catastrophe, but are now seen + to have brought in, with the downfall of feudalism, the beginnings of the + centralizing, civilizing monarchical period; the French Revolution, once + thought a mere outburst of diabolic passion, but now seen to be an unduly + delayed transition from the monarchical to the constitutional epoch: all + show that even widespread deterioration and decline—often, indeed, + the greatest political and moral catastrophes—so far from leading to + a fall of mankind, tend in the long run to raise humanity to higher + planes. + </p> + <p> + Thus, then, Anthropology and its handmaids, Ethnology, Philology, and + History, have wrought out, beyond a doubt, proofs of the upward evolution + of humanity since the appearance of man upon our planet. + </p> + <p> + Nor have these researches been confined to progress in man's material + condition. Far more important evidences have been found of upward + evolution in his family, social, moral, intellectual, and religious + relations. The light thrown on this subject by such men as Lubbock, Tylor, + Herbert Spencer, Buckle, Draper, Max Muller, and a multitude of others, + despite mistakes, haltings, stumblings, and occasional following of + delusive paths, is among the greatest glories of the century now ending. + From all these investigators in their various fields, holding no brief for + any system sacred or secular, but seeking truth as truth, comes the same + general testimony of the evolution of higher out of lower. The process has + been indeed slow and painful, but this does not prove that it may not + become more rapid and less fruitful in sorrow as humanity goes on.(196) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (196) As to the good effects of migration, see Waitz, Introduction to +Anthropology, London, 1863, p. 345. +</pre> + <p> + While, then, it is not denied that many instances of retrogression can be + found, the consenting voice of unbiased investigators in all lands has + declared more and more that the beginnings of our race must have been low + and brutal, and that the tendency has been upward. To combat this + conclusion by examples of decline and deterioration here and there has + become impossible: as well try to prove that, because in the Mississippi + there are eddies in which the currents flow northward, there is no main + stream flowing southward; or that, because trees decay and fall, there is + no law of upward growth from germ to trunk, branches, foliage, and fruit. + </p> + <p> + A very striking evidence that the theological theory had become untenable + was seen when its main supporter in the scientific field, Von Martius, in + the full ripeness of his powers, publicly declared his conversion to the + scientific view. + </p> + <p> + Yet, while the tendency of enlightened human thought in recent times is + unmistakable, the struggle against the older view is not yet ended. The + bitterness of the Abbe Hamard in France has been carried to similar and + even greater extremes among sundry Protestant bodies in Europe and + America. The simple truth of history mates it a necessity, unpleasant + though it be, to chronicle two typical examples in the United States. + </p> + <p> + In the year 1875 a leader in American industrial enterprise endowed at the + capital of a Southern State a university which bore his name. It was given + into the hands of one of the religious sects most powerful in that region, + and a bishop of that sect became its president. To its chair of Geology + was called Alexander Winchell, a scholar who had already won eminence as a + teacher and writer in that field, a professor greatly beloved and + respected in the two universities with which he had been connected, and a + member of the sect which the institution of learning above referred to + represented. + </p> + <p> + But his relations to this Southern institution were destined to be brief. + That his lectures at the Vanderbilt University were learned, attractive, + and stimulating, even his enemies were forced to admit; but he was soon + found to believe that there had been men earlier than the period as signed + to Adam, and even that all the human race are not descended from Adam. His + desire was to reconcile science and Scripture, and he was now treated by a + Methodist Episcopal Bishop in Tennessee just as, two centuries before, La + Peyrere had been treated, for a similar effort, by a Roman Catholic + vicar-general in Belgium. The publication of a series of articles on the + subject, contributed by the professor to a Northern religious newspaper at + its own request, brought matters to a climax; for, the articles having + fallen under the notice of a leading Southwestern organ of the + denomination controlling the Vanderbilt University, the result was a most + bitter denunciation of Prof. Winchell and of his views. Shortly afterward + the professor was told by Bishop McTyeire that "our people are of the + opinion that such views are contrary to the plan of redemption," and was + requested by the bishop to quietly resign his chair. To this the professor + made the fitting reply: "If the board of trustees have the manliness to + dismiss me for cause, and declare the cause, I prefer that they should do + it. No power on earth could persuade me to resign." + </p> + <p> + "We do not propose," said the bishop, with quite gratuitous + suggestiveness, "to treat you as the Inquisition treated Galileo." + </p> + <p> + "But what you propose is the same thing," rejoined Dr. Winchell. "It is + ecclesiastical proscription for an opinion which must be settled by + scientific evidence." + </p> + <p> + Twenty-four hours later Dr. Winchell was informed that his chair had been + abolished, and its duties, with its salary, added to those of a colleague; + the public were given to understand that the reasons were purely economic; + the banished scholar was heaped with official compliments, evidently in + hope that he would keep silence. + </p> + <p> + Such was not Dr. Winchell's view. In a frank letter to the leading journal + of the university town he stated the whole matter. The intolerance-hating + press of the country, religious and secular, did not hold its peace. In + vain the authorities of the university waited for the storm to blow over. + It was evident, at last, that a defence must be made, and a local organ of + the sect, which under the editorship of a fellow-professor had always + treated Dr. Winchell's views with the luminous inaccuracy which usually + characterizes a professor's ideas of a rival's teachings, assumed the + task. In the articles which followed, the usual scientific hypotheses as + to the creation were declared to be "absurd," "vague and unintelligible," + "preposterous and gratuitous." This new champion stated that "the + objections drawn from the fossiliferous strata and the like are met by + reference to the analogy of Adam and Eve, who presented the phenomena of + adults when they were but a day old, and by the Flood of Noah and other + cataclysms, which, with the constant change of Nature, are sufficient to + account for the phenomena in question"! + </p> + <p> + Under inspiration of this sort the Tennessee Conference of the religious + body in control of the university had already, in October, 1878, given + utterance to its opinion of unsanctified science as follows: "This is an + age in which scientific atheism, having divested itself of the habiliments + that most adorn and dignify humanity, walks abroad in shameless + denudation. The arrogant and impertinent claims of this 'science, falsely + so called,' have been so boisterous and persistent, that the unthinking + mass have been sadly deluded; but our university alone has had the courage + to lay its young but vigorous hand upon the mane of untamed Speculation + and say, 'We will have no more of this.'" It is a consolation to know how + the result, thus devoutly sought, has been achieved; for in the "ode" sung + at the laying of the corner-stone of a new theological building of the + same university, in May, 1880, we read: + </p> + <p> + "Science and Revelation here In perfect harmony appear, Guiding young feet + along the road Through grace and Nature up to God." + </p> + <p> + It is also pleasing to know that, while an institution calling itself a + university thus violated the fundamental principles on which any + institution worthy of the name must be based, another institution which + has the glory of being the first in the entire North to begin something + like a university organization—the State University of Michigan—recalled + Dr. Winchell at once to his former professorship, and honoured itself by + maintaining him in that position, where, unhampered, he was thereafter + able to utter his views in the midst of the largest body of students on + the American Continent. + </p> + <p> + Disgraceful as this history was to the men who drove out Dr. Winchell, + they but succeeded, as various similar bodies of men making similar + efforts have done, in advancing their supposed victim to higher position + and more commanding influence.(197) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (197) For Dr. Winchell's original statements, see Adamites and +Pre-Adamites, Syracuse, N. Y., 1878. For the first important +denunciation of his views, see the St. Louis Christian Advocate, May 22, +1878. For the conversation with Bishop McTyeire, see Dr. Winchell's +own account in the Nashville American of July 19, 1878. For the further +course of the attack in the denominational organ of Dr. Winchell's +oppressors, see the Nashville Christian Advocate, April 26, 1879. For +the oratorical declaration of the Tennessee Conference upon the +matter, see the Nashville American, October 15, 1878; and for the "ode" +regarding the "harmony of science and revelation" as supported at the +university, see the same journal for May 2, 1880 +</pre> + <p> + A few years after this suppression of earnest Christian thought at an + institution of learning in the western part of our Southern States, there + appeared a similar attempt in sundry seaboard States of the South. + </p> + <p> + As far back as the year 1857 the Presbyterian Synod of Mississippi passed + the following resolution: + </p> + <p> + "WHEREAS, We live in an age in which the most insidious attacks are made + on revealed religion through the natural sciences, and as it behooves the + Church at all times to have men capable of defending the faith once + delivered to the saints; + </p> + <p> + "RESOLVED, That this presbytery recommend the endowment of a professorship + of Natural Science as connected with revealed religion in one or more of + our theological seminaries." + </p> + <p> + Pursuant to this resolution such a chair was established in the + theological seminary at Columbia, S.C., and James Woodrow was appointed + professor. Dr. Woodrow seems to have been admirably fitted for the + position—a devoted Christian man, accepting the Presbyterian + standards of faith in which he had been brought up, and at the same time + giving every effort to acquaint himself with the methods and conclusions + of science. To great natural endowments he added constant labours to + arrive at the truth in this field. Visiting Europe, he made the + acquaintance of many of the foremost scientific investigators, became a + student in university lecture rooms and laboratories, an interested hearer + in scientific conventions, and a correspondent of leading men of science + at home and abroad. As a result, he came to the conclusion that the + hypothesis of evolution is the only one which explains various leading + facts in natural science. This he taught, and he also taught that such a + view is not incompatible with a true view of the sacred Scriptures. + </p> + <p> + In 1882 and 1883 the board of directors of the theological seminary, in + fear that "scepticism in the world is using alleged discoveries in science + to impugn the Word of God," requested Prof. Woodrow to state his views in + regard to evolution. The professor complied with this request in a very + powerful address, which was published and widely circulated, to such + effect that the board of directors shortly afterward passed resolutions + declaring the theory of evolution as defined by Prof. Woodrow not + inconsistent with perfect soundness in the faith. + </p> + <p> + In the year 1884 alarm regarding Dr. Woodrow's teachings began to show + itself in larger proportions, and a minority report was introduced into + the Synod of South Carolina declaring that "the synod is called upon to + decide not upon the question whether the said views of Dr. Woodrow + contradict the Bible in its highest and absolute sense, but upon the + question whether they contradict the interpretation of the Bible by the + Presbyterian Church in the United States." + </p> + <p> + Perhaps a more self-condemnatory statement was never presented, for it + clearly recognized, as a basis for intolerance, at least a possible + difference between "the interpretation of the Bible by the Presbyterian + Church" and the teachings of "the Bible in its highest and absolute + sense." + </p> + <p> + This hostile movement became so strong that, in spite of the favourable + action of the directors of the seminary, and against the efforts of a + broad-minded minority in the representative bodies having ultimate charge + of the institution, the delegates from the various synods raised a storm + of orthodoxy and drove Dr. Woodrow from his post. Happily, he was at the + same time professor in the University of South Carolina in the same city + of Columbia, and from his chair in that institution he continued to teach + natural science with the approval of the great majority of thinking men in + that region; hence, the only effect of the attempt to crush him was, that + his position was made higher, respect for him deeper, and his reputation + wider. + </p> + <p> + In spite of attempts by the more orthodox to prevent students of the + theological seminary from attending his lectures at the university, they + persisted in hearing him; indeed, the reputation of heresy seemed to + enhance his influence. + </p> + <p> + It should be borne in mind that the professor thus treated had been one of + the most respected and beloved university instructors in the South during + more than a quarter of a century, and that he was turned out of his + position with no opportunity for careful defence, and, indeed, without + even the formality of a trial. Well did an eminent but thoughtful divine + of the Southern Presbyterian Church declare that "the method of procedure + to destroy evolution by the majority in the Church is vicious and + suicidal," and that "logical dynamite has been used to put out a supposed + fire in the upper stories of our house, and all the family in the house at + that." Wisely, too, did he refer to the majority as "sowing in the fields + of the Church the thorns of its errors, and cumbering its path with the + debris and ruin of its own folly." + </p> + <p> + To these recent cases may be added the expulsion of Prof. Toy from + teaching under ecclesiastical control at Louisville, and his election to a + far more influential chair at Harvard University; the driving out from the + American College at Beyrout of the young professors who accepted evolution + as probable, and the rise of one of them, Mr. Nimr, to a far more + commanding position than that which he left—the control of three + leading journals at Cairo; the driving out of Robertson Smith from his + position at Edinburgh, and his reception into the far more important and + influential professorship at the English University of Cambridge; and + multitudes of similar cases. From the days when Henry Dunster, the first + President of Harvard College, was driven from his presidency, as Cotton + Mather said, for "falling into the briers of Antipedobaptism" until now, + the same spirit is shown in all such attempts. In each we have generally, + on one side, a body of older theologians, who since their youth have + learned nothing and forgotten nothing, sundry professors who do not wish + to rewrite their lectures, and a mass of unthinking ecclesiastical persons + of little or no importance save in making up a retrograde majority in an + ecclesiastical tribunal; on the other side we have as generally the + thinking, open-minded, devoted men who have listened to the revelation of + their own time as well as of times past, and who are evidently thinking + the future thought of the world. + </p> + <p> + Here we have survivals of that same oppression of thought by theology + which has cost the modern world so dear; the system which forced great + numbers of professors, under penalty of deprivation, to teach that the sun + and planets revolve about the earth; that comets are fire-balls flung by + an angry God at a wicked world; that insanity is diabolic possession; that + anatomical investigation of the human frame is sin against the Holy Ghost; + that chemistry leads to sorcery; that taking interest for money is + forbidden by Scripture; that geology must conform to ancient Hebrew + poetry. From the same source came in Austria the rule of the "Immaculate + Oath," under which university professors, long before the dogma of the + Immaculate Conception was defined by the Church, were obliged to swear to + their belief in that dogma before they were permitted to teach even + arithmetic or geometry; in England, the denunciation of inoculation + against smallpox; in Scotland, the protests against using chloroform in + childbirth as "vitiating the primal curse against woman"; in France, the + use in clerical schools of a historical text-book from which Napoleon was + left out; and, in America, the use of Catholic manuals in which the + Inquisition is declared to have been a purely civil tribunal, or + Protestant manuals in which the Puritans are shown to have been all that + we could now wish they had been. + </p> + <p> + So, too, among multitudes of similar efforts abroad, we have during + centuries the fettering of professors at English and Scotch universities + by test oaths, subscriptions to articles, and catechisms without number. + In our own country we have had in a vast multitude of denominational + colleges, as the first qualification for a professorship, not ability in + the subject to be taught, but fidelity to the particular shibboleth of the + denomination controlling the college or university. + </p> + <p> + Happily, in these days such attempts generally defeat themselves. The + supposed victim is generally made a man of mark by persecution, and + advanced to a higher and wider sphere of usefulness. In withstanding the + march of scientific truth, any Conference, Synod, Board of Commissioners, + Board of Trustees, or Faculty, is but as a nest of field-mice in the path + of a steam plough. + </p> + <p> + The harm done to religion in these attempts is far greater than that done + to science; for thereby suspicions are widely spread, especially among + open-minded young men, that the accepted Christian system demands a + concealment of truth, with the persecution of honest investigators, and + therefore must be false. Well was it said in substance by President + McCosh, of Princeton, that no more sure way of making unbelievers in + Christianity among young men could be devised than preaching to them that + the doctrines arrived at by the great scientific thinkers of this period + are opposed to religion. + </p> + <p> + Yet it is but justice here to say that more and more there is evolving out + of this past history of oppression a better spirit, which is making itself + manifest with power in the leading religious bodies of the world. In the + Church of Rome we have to-day such utterances as those of St. George + Mivart, declaring that the Church must not attempt to interfere with + science; that the Almighty in the Galileo case gave her a distinct warning + that the priesthood of science must remain with the men of science. In the + Anglican Church and its American daughter we have the acts and utterances + of such men as Archbishop Tait, Bishop Temple, Dean Stanley, Dean Farrar, + and many others, proving that the deepest religious thought is more and + more tending to peace rather than warfare with science; and in the other + churches, especially in America, while there is yet much to be desired, + the welcome extended in many of them to Alexander Winchell, and the + freedom given to views like his, augur well for a better state of things + in the future. + </p> + <p> + From the science of Anthropology, when rightly viewed as a whole, has come + the greatest aid to those who work to advance religion rather than to + promote any particular system of theology; for Anthropology and its + subsidiary sciences show more and more that man, since coming upon the + earth, has risen, from the period when he had little, if any, idea of a + great power above him, through successive stages of fetichism, shamanism, + and idolatry, toward better forms of belief, making him more and more + accessible to nobler forms of religion. The same sciences show, too, + within the historic period, the same tendency, and especially within the + events covered by our sacred books, a progress from fetichism, of which so + many evidences crop out in the early Jewish worship as shown in the Old + Testament Scriptures, through polytheism, when Jehovah was but "a god + above all gods," through the period when he was "a jealous God," + capricious and cruel, until he is revealed in such inspired utterances as + those of the nobler Psalms, the great passages in Isaiah, the sublime + preaching of Micah, and, above all, through the ideal given to the world + by Jesus of Nazareth. + </p> + <p> + Well indeed has an eminent divine of the Church of England in our own time + called on Christians to rejoice over this evolution, "between the God of + Samuel, who ordered infants to be slaughtered, and the God of the + Psalmist, whose tender mercies are over all his works; between the God of + the Patriarchs, who was always repenting, and the God of the Apostles, who + is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, with whom there is no + variableness nor shadow of turning, between the God of the Old Testament, + who walked in the garden in the cool of the day, and the God of the New + Testament, whom no man hath seen nor can see; between the God of + Leviticus, who was so particular about the sacrificial furniture and + utensils, and the God of the Acts, who dwelleth not in temples made with + hands; between the God who hardened Pharaoh's heart, and the God who will + have all men to be saved; between the God of Exodus, who is merciful only + to those who love him, and the God of Christ—the heavenly Father—who + is kind unto the unthankful and the evil." + </p> + <p> + However overwhelming, then, the facts may be which Anthropology, History, + and their kindred sciences may, in the interest of simple truth, establish + against the theological doctrine of "the Fall"; however completely they + may fossilize various dogmas, catechisms, creeds, confessions, "plans of + salvation" and "schemes of redemption," which have been evolved from the + great minds of the theological period: science, so far from making inroads + on religion, or even upon our Christian development of it, will strengthen + all that is essential in it, giving new and nobler paths to man's highest + aspirations. For the one great, legitimate, scientific conclusion of + anthropology is, that, more and more, a better civilization of the world, + despite all its survivals of savagery and barbarism, is developing men and + women on whom the declarations of the nobler Psalms, of Isaiah, of Micah, + the Sermon on the Mount, the first great commandment, and the second, + which is like unto it, St. Paul's praise of charity and St. James's + definition of "pure religion and undefiled," can take stronger hold for + the more effective and more rapid uplifting of our race.(198) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (198) For the resolution of the Presbyterian Synod of Mississippi in +1857, see Prof. Woodrow's speech before the Synod of South Carolina, +October 27 and 28, 1884, p. 6. As to the action of the Board of +Directors of the Theological Seminary of Columbia, see ibid. As to the +minority report in the Synod of South Carolina, see ibid., p. 24. For +the pithy sentences regarding the conduct of the majority in the synods +toward Dr. Woodrow, see the Rev. Mr. Flynn's article in the Southern +Presbyterian Review for April, 1885, p. 272, and elsewhere. For the +restrictions regarding the teaching of the Copernican theory and the +true doctrine of comets in German universities, see various histories of +astronomy, especially Madler. For the immaculate oath (Immaculaten-Eid) +as enforced upon the Austrian professors, see Luftkandl, Die +Josephinischen Ideen. For the effort of the Church in France, after the +restoration of the Bourbons, to teach a history of that country from +which the name of Napoleon should be left out, see Father Loriquet's +famous Histoire de France a l'Usage de la Jeunesse, Lyon, 1820, vol. +ii, see especially table of contents at the end. The book bears on its +title-page the well known initials of the Jesuit motto, A. M. D. G. (Ad +Majorem Dei Gloriam). For examples in England and Scotland, see various +English histories, and especially Buckle's chapters on Scotland. For a +longer collection of examples showing the suppression of anything like +unfettered thought upon scientific subjects in American universities, +see Inaugural Address at the Opening of Cornell University, by the +author of these chapters. For the citation regarding the evolution of +better and nobler ideas of God, see Church and Creed: Sermons preached +in the Chapel of the Foundling Hospital, London, by A. W. Momerie, +M. A., LL. D., Professor of Logic and Metaphysics in King's College, +London, 1890. For a very vigorous utterance on the other side, see a +recent charge of the Bishop of Gloucester. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XI. FROM "THE PRINCE OF THE POWER OF THE AIR" TO METEOROLOGY + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0039" id="link2H_4_0039"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I. GROWTH OF A THEOLOGICAL THEORY. + </h2> + <p> + The popular beliefs of classic antiquity regarding storms, thunder, and + lightning, took shape in myths representing Vulcan as forging + thunderbolts, Jupiter as flinging them at his enemies, Aeolus intrusting + the winds in a bag to Aeneas, and the like. An attempt at their further + theological development is seen in the Pythagorean statement that + lightnings are intended to terrify the damned in Tartarus. + </p> + <p> + But at a very early period we see the beginning of a scientific view. In + Greece, the Ionic philosophers held that such phenomena are obedient to + law. Plato, Aristotle, and many lesser lights, attempted to account for + them on natural grounds; and their explanations, though crude, were based + upon observation and thought. In Rome, Lucretius, Seneca, Pliny, and + others, inadequate as their statements were, implanted at least the germs + of a science. But, as the Christian Church rose to power, this evolution + was checked; the new leaders of thought found, in the Scriptures + recognized by them as sacred, the basis for a new view, or rather for a + modification of the old view. + </p> + <p> + This ending of a scientific evolution based upon observation and reason, + and this beginning of a sacred science based upon the letter of Scripture + and on theology, are seen in the utterances of various fathers in the + early Church. As to the general features of this new development, + Tertullian held that sundry passages of Scripture prove lightning + identical with hell-fire; and this idea was transmitted from generation to + generation of later churchmen, who found an especial support of + Tertullian's view in the sulphurous smell experienced during + thunderstorms. St. Hilary thought the firmament very much lower than the + heavens, and that it was created not only for the support of the upper + waters, but also for the tempering of our atmosphere.(199) St. Ambrose + held that thunder is caused by the winds breaking through the solid + firmament, and cited from the prophet Amos the sublime passage regarding + "Him that establisheth the thunders."(200) He shows, indeed, some + conception of the true source of rain; but his whole reasoning is limited + by various scriptural texts. He lays great stress upon the firmament as a + solid outer shell of the universe: the heavens he holds to be not far + outside this outer shell, and argues regarding their character from St. + Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians and from the one hundred and + forty-eighth Psalm. As to "the waters which are above the firmament," he + takes up the objection of those who hold that, this outside of the + universe being spherical, the waters must slide off it, especially if the + firmament revolves; and he points out that it is by no means certain that + the OUTSIDE of the firmament IS spherical, and insists that, if it does + revolve, the water is just what is needed to lubricate and cool its axis. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (199) For Tertullian, see the Apol. contra gentes, c. 47; also Augustin +de Angelis, Lectiones Meteorologicae, p. 64. For Hilary, see In Psalm +CXXXV. (Migne, Patr. Lat., vol. ix, p. 773). +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (200) "Firmans tonitrua" (Amos iv, 13); the phrase does not appear in +our version. +</pre> + <p> + St. Jerome held that God at the Creation, having spread out the firmament + between heaven and earth, and having separated the upper waters from the + lower, caused the upper waters to be frozen into ice, in order to keep all + in place. A proof of this view Jerome found in the words of Ezekiel + regarding "the crystal stretched above the cherubim."(201) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (201) For Ambrose, see the Hexaemeron, lib. ii, cap. 3,4; lib. iii, cap. +5 (Migne, Patr. Lat., vol. xiv, pp. 148-150, 153, 165). The passage +as to lubrication of the heavenly axis is as follows: "Deinde cum ispi +dicant volvi orbem coeli stellis ardentibus refulgentem, nonne divina +providentia necessario prospexit, ut intra orbem coeli, et supra orbem +redundaret aqua, quae illa ferventis axis incendia temperaret?" For +Jerome, see his Epistola, lxix, cap. 6 (Migne, Patr. Lat., vol. xxii, +p.659). +</pre> + <p> + The germinal principle in accordance with which all these theories were + evolved was most clearly proclaimed to the world by St. Augustine in his + famous utterance: "Nothing is to be accepted save on the authority of + Scripture, since greater is that authority than all the powers of the + human mind."(202) No treatise was safe thereafter which did not breathe + the spirit and conform to the letter of this maxim. Unfortunately, what + was generally understood by the "authority of Scripture" was the tyranny + of sacred books imperfectly transcribed, viewed through distorting + superstitions, and frequently interpreted by party spirit. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (202) "Major est quippe Scripturae hujas auctoritas, quam omnis humani +ingenii capacitas."—Augustine, De Genesi ad Lit., lib. ii, cap. 5 +(Migne, Patr. Lat., vol. xxxiv, pp. 266, 267). Or, as he is cited by +Vincent of Beauvais (Spec. Nat., lib. iv, 98): "Non est aliquid temere +diffiniendum, sed quantum Scriptura dicit accipiendum, cujus major est +auctoritas quam omnis humani ingenii capacitas." +</pre> + <p> + Following this precept of St. Augustine there were developed, in every + field, theological views of science which have never led to a single truth—which, + without exception, have forced mankind away from the truth, and have + caused Christendom to stumble for centuries into abysses of error and + sorrow. In meteorology, as in every other science with which he dealt, + Augustine based everything upon the letter of the sacred text; and it is + characteristic of the result that this man, so great when untrammelled, + thought it his duty to guard especially the whole theory of the "waters + above the heavens." + </p> + <p> + In the sixth century this theological reasoning was still further + developed, as we have seen, by Cosmas Indicopleustes. Finding a sanction + for the old Egyptian theory of the universe in the ninth chapter of + Hebrews, he insisted that the earth is a flat parallelogram, and that from + its outer edges rise immense walls supporting the firmament; then, + throwing together the reference to the firmament in Genesis and the + outburst of poetry in the Psalms regarding the "waters that be above the + heavens," he insisted that over the terrestrial universe are solid arches + bearing a vault supporting a vast cistern "containing the waters"; + finally, taking from Genesis the expression regarding the "windows of + heaven," he insisted that these windows are opened and closed by the + angels whenever the Almighty wishes to send rain upon the earth or to + withhold it. + </p> + <p> + This was accepted by the universal Church as a vast contribution to + thought; for several centuries it was the orthodox doctrine, and various + leaders in theology devoted themselves to developing and supplementing it. + </p> + <p> + About the beginning of the seventh century, Isidore, Bishop of Seville, + was the ablest prelate in Christendom, and was showing those great + qualities which led to his enrolment among the saints of the Church. His + theological view of science marks an epoch. As to the "waters above the + firmament," Isidore contends that they must be lower than, the uppermost + heaven, though higher than the lower heaven, because in the one hundred + and forty-eighth Psalm they are mentioned AFTER the heavenly bodies and + the "heaven of heavens," but BEFORE the terrestrial elements. As to their + purpose, he hesitates between those who held that they were stored up + there by the prescience of God for the destruction of the world at the + Flood, as the words of Scripture that "the windows of heaven were opened" + seemed to indicate, and those who held that they were kept there to + moderate the heat of the heavenly bodies. As to the firmament, he is in + doubt whether it envelops the earth "like an eggshell," or is merely + spread over it "like a curtain"; for he holds that the passage in the one + hundred and fourth Psalm may be used to support either view. + </p> + <p> + Having laid these scriptural foundations, Isidore shows considerable power + of thought; indeed, at times, when he discusses the rainbow, rain, hail, + snow, and frost, his theories are rational, and give evidence that, if he + could have broken away from his adhesion to the letter of Scripture, he + might have given a strong impulse to the evolution of a true science.(203) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (203) For Cosmas, see his Topographia Christiana (in Montfaucon, +Collectio nova patrum, vol. ii), and the more complete account of his +theory given in the chapter on Geography in this work. For Isidore, see +the Etymologiae, lib. xiii, cap. 7-9, De ordine creaturarum, cap. 3, 4, +and De natura rerum, cap. 29, 30. (Migne, Patr. Lat., vol. lxxxii, pp. +476, 477, vol. lxxxiii, pp. 920-922, 1001-1003). +</pre> + <p> + About a century later appeared, at the other extremity of Europe, the + second in the trio of theological men of science in the early Middle Ages—Bede + the Venerable. The nucleus of his theory also is to be found in the + accepted view of the "firmament" and of the "waters above the heavens," + derived from Genesis. The firmament he holds to be spherical, and of a + nature subtile and fiery; the upper heavens, he says, which contain the + angels, God has tempered with ice, lest they inflame the lower elements. + As to the waters placed above the firmament, lower than the spiritual + heavens, but higher than all corporeal creatures, he says, "Some declare + that they were stored there for the Deluge, but others, more correctly, + that they are intended to temper the fire of the stars." He goes on with + long discussions as to various elements and forces in Nature, and dwells + at length upon the air, of which he says that the upper, serene air is + over the heavens; while the lower, which is coarse, with humid + exhalations, is sent off from the earth, and that in this are lightning, + hail, snow, ice, and tempests, finding proof of this in the one hundred + and forty-eighth Psalm, where these are commanded to "praise the Lord from + the earth."(204) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (204) See Bede, De natura rerum (Migne, Patr. Lat., vol. xc). +</pre> + <p> + So great was Bede's authority, that nearly all the anonymous speculations + of the next following centuries upon these subjects were eventually + ascribed to him. In one of these spurious treatises an attempt is made to + get new light upon the sources of the waters above the heavens, the main + reliance being the sheet containing the animals let down from heaven, in + the vision of St. Peter. Another of these treatises is still more curious, + for it endeavours to account for earthquakes and tides by means of the + leviathan mentioned in Scripture. This characteristic passage runs as + follows: "Some say that the earth contains the animal leviathan, and that + he holds his tail after a fashion of his own, so that it is sometimes + scorched by the sun, whereupon he strives to get hold of the sun, and so + the earth is shaken by the motion of his indignation; he drinks in also, + at times, such huge masses of the waves that when he belches them forth + all the seas feel their effect." And this theological theory of the tides, + as caused by the alternate suction and belching of leviathan, went far and + wide.(205) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (205) See the treatise De mundi constitutione, in Bede's Opera (Migne, +Patr. Lat., vol. xc, p. 884). +</pre> + <p> + In the writings thus covered with the name of Bede there is much showing a + scientific spirit, which might have come to something of permanent value + had it not been hampered by the supposed necessity of conforming to the + letter of Scripture. It is as startling as it is refreshing to hear one of + these medieval theorists burst out as follows against those who are + content to explain everything by the power of God: "What is more pitiable + than to say that a thing IS, because God is able to do it, and not to show + any reason why it is so, nor any purpose for which it is so; just as if + God did everything that he is able to do! You talk like one who says that + God is able to make a calf out of a log. But DID he ever do it? Either, + then, show a reason why a thing is so, or a purpose wherefore it is so, or + else cease to declare it so."(206) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (206) For this remonstrance, see the Elementa philosophiae, in Bede's +Opera (Migne, Patr. Lat., vol xc, p. 1139). This treatise, which has +also been printed, under the title of De philosophia mundi, among the +works of Honorius of Autun, is believed by modern scholars (Haureau, +Werner, Poole) to be the production of William of Conches. +</pre> + <p> + The most permanent contribution of Bede to scientific thought in this + field was his revival of the view that the firmament is made of ice; and + he supported this from the words in the twenty-sixth chapter of Job, "He + bindeth up the waters in his thick cloud, and the cloud is not rent under + them." + </p> + <p> + About the beginning of the ninth century appeared the third in that + triumvirate of churchmen who were the oracles of sacred science throughout + the early Middle Ages—Rabanus Maurus, Abbot of Fulda and Archbishop + of Mayence. Starting, like all his predecessors, from the first chapter of + Genesis, borrowing here and there from the ancient philosophers, and + excluding everything that could conflict with the letter of Scripture, he + follows, in his work upon the universe, his two predecessors, Isidore and + Bede, developing especially St. Jerome's theory, drawn from Ezekiel, that + the firmament is strong enough to hold up the "waters above the heavens," + because it is made of ice. + </p> + <p> + For centuries the authority of these three great teachers was + unquestioned, and in countless manuals and catechisms their doctrine was + translated and diluted for the common mind. But about the second quarter + of the twelfth century a priest, Honorius of Autun, produced several + treatises which show that thought on this subject had made some little + progress. He explained the rain rationally, and mainly in the modern + manner; with the thunder he is less successful, but insists that the + thunderbolt "is not stone, as some assert." His thinking is vigorous and + independent. Had theorists such as he been many, a new science could have + been rapidly evolved, but the theological current was too strong. (207) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (207) For Rabanus Maurus, see the Comment. in Genesim and De Universo +(Migne, Patr. Lat., vol. cvii, cxi). For a charmingly naive example of +the primers referred to, see the little Anglo-Saxon manual of astronomy, +sometimes attributed to Aelfric; it is in the vernacular, but is +translated in Wright's Popular Treatises on Science during the Middle +Ages. Bede is, of course, its chief source. For Honorius, see De +imagine mundi and Hexaemeron (Migne, Patr. Lat., vol. clxxii). The De +philosophia mundi, the most rational of all, is, however, believed by +modern scholars to be unjustly ascribed to him. See note above. +</pre> + <p> + The strength of this current which overwhelmed the thought of Honorius is + seen again in the work of the Dominican monk, John of San Geminiano, who + in the thirteenth century gave forth his Summa de Exemplis for the use of + preachers in his order. Of its thousand pages, over two hundred are + devoted to illustrations drawn from the heavens and the elements. A + characteristic specimen is his explanation of the Psalmist's phrase, "The + arrows of the thunder." These, he tells us, are forged out of a dry vapour + rising from the earth and kindled by the heat of the upper air, which + then, coming into contact with a cloud just turning into rain, "is + conglutinated like flour into dough," but, being too hot to be + extinguished, its particles become merely sharpened at the lower end, and + so blazing arrows, cleaving and burning everything they touch.(208) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (208) See Joannes a S. Geminiano, Summa, c. 75. +</pre> + <p> + But far more important, in the thirteenth century, was the fact that the + most eminent scientific authority of that age, Albert the Great, Bishop of + Ratisbon, attempted to reconcile the speculations of Aristotle with + theological views derived from the fathers. In one very important respect + he improved upon the meteorological views of his great master. The + thunderbolt, he says, is no mere fire, but the product of black clouds + containing much mud, which, when it is baked by the intense heat, forms a + fiery black or red stone that falls from the sky, tearing beams and + crushing walls in its course: such he has seen with his own eyes.(209) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (209) See Albertus Magnus, II Sent., Op., vol. xv, p. 137, a. (cited +by Heller, Gesch. d. Physik, vol. i, p. 184) and his Liber Methaurorum, +III, iv, 18 (of which I have used the edition of Venice, 1488). +</pre> + <p> + The monkish encyclopedists of the later Middle Ages added little to these + theories. As we glance over the pages of Vincent of Beauvais, the monk + Bartholomew, and William of Conches, we note only a growing deference to + the authority of Aristotle as supplementing that of Isidore and Bede and + explaining sacred Scripture. Aristotle is treated like a Church father, + but extreme care is taken not to go beyond the great maxim of St. + Augustine; then, little by little, Bede and Isidore fall into the + background, Aristotle fills the whole horizon, and his utterances are + second in sacredness only to the text of Holy Writ. + </p> + <p> + A curious illustration of the difficulties these medieval scholars had to + meet in reconciling the scientific theories of Aristotle with the letter + of the Bible is seen in the case of the rainbow. It is to the honour of + Aristotle that his conclusions regarding the rainbow, though slightly + erroneous, were based upon careful observation and evolved by reasoning + alone; but his Christian commentators, while anxious to follow him, had to + bear in mind the scriptural statement that God had created the rainbow as + a sign to Noah that there should never again be a Flood on the earth. Even + so bold a thinker as Cardinal d'Ailly, whose speculations as to the + geography of the earth did so much afterward in stimulating Columbus, + faltered before this statement, acknowledging that God alone could explain + it; but suggested that possibly never before the Deluge had a cloud been + suffered to take such a position toward the sun as to cause a rainbow. + </p> + <p> + The learned cardinal was also constrained to believe that certain stars + and constellations have something to do in causing the rain, since these + would best explain Noah's foreknowledge of the Deluge. In connection with + this scriptural doctrine of winds came a scriptural doctrine of + earthquakes: they were believed to be caused by winds issuing from the + earth, and this view was based upon the passage in the one hundred and + thirty-fifth Psalm, "He bringeth the wind out of his treasuries."(210) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (210) For D'Ailly, see his Concordia astronomicae veritatis cum +theologia (Paris, 1483—in the Imago mundi—and Venice, 1490); also +Eck's commentary on Aristotle's Meteorologica (Ausburg, 1519), lib. ii, +nota 2; also Reisch, Margarita philosophica, lib. ix, c. 18. +</pre> + <p> + Such were the main typical attempts during nearly fourteen centuries to + build up under theological guidance and within scriptural limitations a + sacred science of meteorology. But these theories were mainly evolved in + the effort to establish a basis and general theory of phenomena: it still + remained to account for special manifestations, and here came a twofold + development of theological thought. + </p> + <p> + On one hand, these phenomena were attributed to the Almighty, and, on the + other, to Satan. As to the first of these theories, we constantly find the + Divine wrath mentioned by the earlier fathers as the cause of lightning, + hailstorms, hurricanes, and the like. + </p> + <p> + In the early days of Christianity we see a curious struggle between pagan + and Christian belief upon this point. Near the close of the second century + the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, in his effort to save the empire, fought a + hotly contested battle with the Quadi, in what is now Hungary. While the + issue of this great battle was yet doubtful there came suddenly a blinding + storm beating into the faces of the Quadi, and this gave the Roman troops + the advantage, enabling Marcus Aurelius to win a decisive victory. + Votaries of each of the great religions claimed that this storm was caused + by the object of their own adoration. The pagans insisted that Jupiter had + sent the storm in obedience to their prayers, and on the Antonine Column + at Rome we may still see the figure of Olympian Jove casting his + thunderbolts and pouring a storm of rain from the open heavens against the + Quadi. On the other hand, the Christians insisted that the storm had been + sent by Jehovah in obedience to THEIR prayers; and Tertullian, Eusebius, + St. Gregory of Nyssa, and St. Jerome were among those who insisted upon + this meteorological miracle; the first two, indeed, in the fervour of + their arguments for its reality, allowing themselves to be carried + considerably beyond exact historical truth.(211) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (211) For the authorities, pagan and Christian, see the note of +Merivale, in his History of the Romans under the Empire, chap. lxviii. +He refers for still fuller citations to Fynes Clinton's Fasti Rom., p. +24. +</pre> + <p> + As time went on, the fathers developed this view more and more from + various texts in the Jewish and Christian sacred books, substituting for + Jupiter flinging his thunderbolts the Almighty wrapped in thunder and + sending forth his lightnings. Through the Middle Ages this was fostered + until it came to be accepted as a mere truism, entering into all medieval + thinking, and was still further developed by an attempt to specify the + particular sins which were thus punished. Thus even the rational + Florentine historian Villani ascribed floods and fires to the "too great + pride of the city of Florence and the ingratitude of the citizens toward + God," which, "of course," says a recent historian, "meant their + insufficient attention to the ceremonies of religion."(212) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (212) See Trollope, History of Florence, vol. i, p. 64. +</pre> + <p> + In the thirteenth century the Cistercian monk, Caesarius of Heisterbach, + popularized the doctrine in central Europe. His rich collection of + anecdotes for the illustration of religious truths was the favourite + recreative reading in the convents for three centuries, and exercised + great influence over the thought of the later Middle Ages. In this work he + relates several instances of the Divine use of lightning, both for rescue + and for punishment. Thus he tells us how the steward (cellerarius) of his + own monastery was saved from the clutch of a robber by a clap of thunder + which, in answer to his prayer, burst suddenly from the sky and frightened + the bandit from his purpose: how, in a Saxon theatre, twenty men were + struck down, while a priest escaped, not because he was not a greater + sinner than the rest, but because the thunderbolt had respect for his + profession! It is Cesarius, too, who tells us the story of the priest of + Treves, struck by lightning in his own church, whither he had gone to ring + the bell against the storm, and whose sins were revealed by the course of + the lightning, for it tore his clothes from him and consumed certain parts + of his body, showing that the sins for which he was punished were vanity + and unchastity.(213) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (213) See Caesarius Heisterbacensis, Dialogus miraculorum, lib. x, c. +28-30. +</pre> + <p> + This mode of explaining the Divine interference more minutely is developed + century after century, and we find both Catholics and Protestants + assigning as causes of unpleasant meteorological phenomena whatever + appears to them wicked or even unorthodox. Among the English Reformers, + Tyndale quotes in this kind of argument the thirteenth chapter of I. + Samuel, showing that, when God gave Israel a king, it thundered and + rained. Archbishop Whitgift, Bishop Bale, and Bishop Pilkington insisted + on the same view. In Protestant Germany, about the same period, Plieninger + took a dislike to the new Gregorian calendar and published a volume of + Brief Reflections, in which he insisted that the elements had given + utterance to God's anger against it, calling attention to the fact that + violent storms raged over almost all Germany during the very ten days + which the Pope had taken out for the correction of the year, and that + great floods began with the first days of the corrected year.(214) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (214) For Tyndale, see his Doctrinal Treatises, p. 194, and for +Whitgift, see his Works, vol. ii, pp. 477-483; Bale, Works, pp. +244, 245; and Pilkington, Works, pp. 177, 536 (all in Parker Society +Publications). Bishop Bale cites especially Job xxxviii, Ecclesiasticus +xiii, and Revelation viii, as supporting the theory. For Plieninger's +words, see Janssen, Geschichte des deutschen Volkes, vol. v, p. 350. +</pre> + <p> + Early in the seventeenth century, Majoli, Bishop of Voltoraria, in + southern Italy, produced his huge work Dies Canicularii, or Dog Days, + which remained a favourite encyclopedia in Catholic lands for over a + hundred years. Treating of thunder and lightning, he compares them to + bombs against the wicked, and says that the thunderbolt is "an exhalation + condensed and cooked into stone," and that "it is not to be doubted that, + of all instruments of God's vengeance, the thunderbolt is the chief"; that + by means of it Sennacherib and his army were consumed; that Luther was + struck by lightning in his youth as a caution against departing from the + Catholic faith; that blasphemy and Sabbath-breaking are the sins to which + this punishment is especially assigned, and he cites the case of Dathan + and Abiram. Fifty years later the Jesuit Stengel developed this line of + thought still further in four thick quarto volumes on the judgments of + God, adding an elaborate schedule for the use of preachers in the sermons + of an entire year. Three chapters were devoted to thunder, lightning, and + storms. That the author teaches the agency in these of diabolical powers + goes without saying; but this can only act, he declares, by Divine + permission, and the thunderbolt is always the finger of God, which rarely + strikes a man save for his sins, and the nature of the special sin thus + punished may be inferred from the bodily organs smitten. A few years + later, in Protestant Swabia, Pastor Georg Nuber issued a volume of + "weather-sermons," in which he discusses nearly every sort of elemental + disturbances—storms, floods, droughts, lightning, and hail. These, + he says, come direct from God for human sins, yet no doubt with + discrimination, for there are five sins which God especially punishes with + lightning and hail—namely, impenitence, incredulity, neglect of the + repair of churches, fraud in the payment of tithes to the clergy, and + oppression of subordinates, each of which points he supports with a mass + of scriptural texts.(215) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (215) For Majoli, see Dies Can., I, i; for Stengel, see the De judiciis +divinis, vol. ii, pp. 15-61, and especially the example of the impurus +et saltator sacerdos, fulmine castratus, pp. 26, 27. For Nuber, see his +Conciones meteoricae, Ulm, 1661. +</pre> + <p> + This doctrine having become especially precious both to Catholics and to + Protestants, there were issued handbooks of prayers against bad weather: + among these was the Spiritual Thunder and Storm Booklet, produced in 1731 + by a Protestant scholar, Stoltzlin, whose three or four hundred pages of + prayer and song, "sighs for use when it lightens fearfully," and "cries of + anguish when the hailstorm is drawing on," show a wonderful adaptability + to all possible meteorological emergencies. The preface of this volume is + contributed by Prof. Dilherr, pastor of the great church of St. Sebald at + Nuremberg, who, in discussing the Divine purposes of storms, adds to the + three usually assigned—namely, God's wish to manifest his power, to + display his anger, and to drive sinners to repentance—a fourth, + which, he says, is that God may show us "with what sort of a stormbell he + will one day ring in the last judgment." + </p> + <p> + About the end of the first quarter of the eighteenth century we find, in + Switzerland, even the eminent and rational Professor of Mathematics, + Scheuchzer, publishing his Physica Sacra, with the Bible as a basis, and + forced to admit that the elements, in the most literal sense, utter the + voice of God. The same pressure was felt in New England. Typical are the + sermons of Increase Mather on The Voice of God in Stormy Winds. He + especially lays stress on the voice of God speaking to Job out of the + whirlwind, and upon the text, "Stormy wind fulfilling his word." He + declares, "When there are great tempests, the angels oftentimes have a + hand therein,... yea, and sometimes evil angels." He gives several cases + of blasphemers struck by lightning, and says, "Nothing can be more + dangerous for mortals than to contemn dreadful providences, and, in + particular, dreadful tempests." + </p> + <p> + His distinguished son, Cotton Mather, disentangled himself somewhat from + the old view, as he had done in the interpretation of comets. In his + Christian Philosopher, his Thoughts for the Day of Rain, and his Sermon + preached at the Time of the Late Storm (in 1723), he is evidently tending + toward the modern view. Yet, from time to time, the older view has + reasserted itself, and in France, as recently as the year 1870, we find + the Bishop of Verdun ascribing the drought afflicting his diocese to the + sin of Sabbath-breaking.(216) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (216) For Stoltzlin, see his Geistliches Donner- und Wetter-Buchlein +(Zurich, 1731). For Increase Mather, see his The Voice of God, etc. +(Boston, 1704). This rare volume is in the rich collection of the +American Antiquarian Society at Worcester. For Cotton Mather's view, see +the chapter From Signs and Wonders to Law, in this work. For the Bishop +of Verdun, see the Semaine relig. de Lorraine, 1879, p. 445 (cited by +"Paul Parfait," in his Dossier des Pelerinages, pp. 141-143). +</pre> + <p> + This theory, which attributed injurious meteorological phenomena mainly to + the purposes of God, was a natural development, and comparatively + harmless; but at a very early period there was evolved another theory, + which, having been ripened into a doctrine, cost the earth dear indeed. + Never, perhaps, in the modern world has there been a dogma more prolific + of physical, mental, and moral agony throughout whole nations and during + whole centuries. This theory, its development by theology, its fearful + results to mankind, and its destruction by scientific observation and + thought, will next be considered. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0040" id="link2H_4_0040"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II. DIABOLIC AGENCY IN STORMS. + </h2> + <p> + While the fathers and schoolmen were labouring to deduce a science of + meteorology from our sacred books, there oozed up in European society a + mass of traditions and observances which had been lurking since the days + of paganism; and, although here and there appeared a churchman to oppose + them, the theologians and ecclesiastics ere long began to adopt them and + to clothe them with the authority of religion. + </p> + <p> + Both among the pagans of the Roman Empire and among the barbarians of the + North the Christian missionaries had found it easier to prove the new God + supreme than to prove the old gods powerless. Faith in the miracles of the + new religion seemed to increase rather than to diminish faith in the + miracles of the old; and the Church at last began admitting the latter as + facts, but ascribing them to the devil. Jupiter and Odin sank into the + category of ministers of Satan, and transferred to that master all their + former powers. A renewed study of Scripture by theologians elicited + overwhelming proofs of the truth of this doctrine. Stress was especially + laid on the declaration of Scripture, "The gods of the heathen are + devils."(217) Supported by this and other texts, it soon became a dogma. + So strong was the hold it took, under the influence of the Church, that + not until late in the seventeenth century did its substantial truth begin + to be questioned. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (217) For so the Vulgate and all the early versions rendered Ps. xcvi, +5. +</pre> + <p> + With no field of action had the sway of the ancient deities been more + identified than with that of atmospheric phenomena. The Roman heard + Jupiter, and the Teuton heard Thor, in the thunder. Could it be doubted + that these powerful beings would now take occasion, unless hindered by the + command of the Almighty, to vent their spite against those who had + deserted their altars? Might not the Almighty himself be willing to employ + the malice of these powers of the air against those who had offended him? + </p> + <p> + It was, indeed, no great step, for those whose simple faith accepted rain + or sunshine as an answer to their prayers, to suspect that the untimely + storms or droughts, which baffled their most earnest petitions, were the + work of the archenemy, "the prince of the power of the air." + </p> + <p> + The great fathers of the Church had easily found warrant for this doctrine + in Scripture. St. Jerome declared the air to be full of devils, basing + this belief upon various statements in the prophecies of Isaiah and in the + Epistle to the Ephesians. St. Augustine held the same view as beyond + controversy.(218) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (218) For St. Jerome, see his Com. in Ep. ad Ephesios (lib. iii, cap.6): +commenting on the text, "Our battle is not with flesh and blood," he +explains this as meaning the devils in the air, and adds, "Nam et in +alio loco de daemonibus quod in aere isto vagentur, Apostolus ait: +In quibus ambulastis aliquando juxta Saeculum mundi istius, secundum +principem potestatis aeris spiritus, qui nunc operatur in filos +diffidentiae (Eph, ii,2). Haec autem omnium doctorum opinio est, quod +aer iste qui coelum et terram medius dividens, inane appellatur, plenus +sit contrariis fortitudinibus." See also his Com. in Isaiam, lib. xiii, +cap. 50 (Migne, Patr. Lat., vol. xxiv, p. 477). For Augustine, see the +De Civitate Dei, passim. +</pre> + <p> + During the Middle Ages this doctrine of the diabolical origin of storms + went on gathering strength. Bede had full faith in it, and narrates + various anecdotes in support of it. St. Thomas Aquinas gave it his + sanction, saying in his all authoritative Summa, "Rains and winds, and + whatsoever occurs by local impulse alone, can be caused by demons." "It + is," he says, "a dogma of faith that the demons can produce wind, storms, + and rain of fire from heaven." + </p> + <p> + Albert the Great taught the same doctrine, and showed how a certain salve + thrown into a spring produced whirlwinds. The great Franciscan—the + "seraphic doctor"—St. Bonaventura, whose services to theology earned + him one of the highest places in the Church, and to whom Dante gave + special honour in paradise, set upon this belief his high authority. The + lives of the saints, and the chronicles of the Middle Ages, were filled + with it. Poetry and painting accepted the idea and developed it. Dante + wedded it to verse, and at Venice this thought may still be seen embodied + in one of the grand pictures of Bordone: a shipload of demons is seen + approaching Venice in a storm, threatening destruction to the city, but + St. Mark, St. George, and St. Nicholas attack the vessel, and disperse the + hellish crew.(219) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (219) For Bede, see the Hist. Eccles., vol. i, p. 17; Vita Cuthberti, +c. 17 (Migne, tome xliv). For Thomas Aquinas, see the Summa, pars I, qu. +lxxx, art. 2. The second citation I owe to Rydberg, Magic of the Middle +Ages, p. 73, where the whole interesting passage is given at length. For +Albertus Magnus, see the De Potentia Daemonum (cited by Maury, Legendes +Pieuses). For Bonaventura, see the Comp. Theol. Veritat., ii, 26. For +Dante, see Purgatorio, c. 5. On Bordone's picture, see Maury, Legendes +Pieuses, p. 18, note. +</pre> + <p> + The popes again and again sanctioned this doctrine, and it was amalgamated + with various local superstitions, pious imaginations, and interesting + arguments, to strike the fancy of the people at large. A strong argument + in favour of a diabolical origin of the thunderbolt was afforded by the + eccentricities of its operation. These attracted especial attention in the + Middle Ages, and the popular love of marvel generalized isolated phenomena + into rules. Thus it was said that the lightning strikes the sword in the + sheath, gold in the purse, the foot in the shoe, leaving sheath and purse + and shoe unharmed; that it consumes a human being internally without + injuring the skin; that it destroys nets in the water, but not on the + land; that it kills one man, and leaves untouched another standing beside + him; that it can tear through a house and enter the earth without moving a + stone from its place; that it injures the heart of a tree, but not the + bark; that wine is poisoned by it, while poisons struck by it lose their + venom; that a man's hair may be consumed by it and the man be unhurt.(220) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (220) See, for lists of such admiranda, any of the early writers—e. g., +Vincent of Beauvais, Reisch's Margarita, or Eck's Aristotle. +</pre> + <p> + These peculiar phenomena, made much of by the allegorizing sermonizers of + the day, were used in moral lessons from every pulpit. Thus the Carmelite, + Matthias Farinator, of Vienna, who at the Pope's own instance compiled + early in the fifteenth century that curious handbook of illustrative + examples for preachers, the Lumen Animae, finds a spiritual analogue for + each of these anomalies.(221) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (221) See the Lumen animae, Eichstadt, 1479. +</pre> + <p> + This doctrine grew, robust and noxious, until, in the fifteenth, + sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, we find its bloom in a multitude of + treatises by the most learned of the Catholic and Protestant divines, and + its fruitage in the torture chambers and on the scaffolds throughout + Christendom. At the Reformation period, and for nearly two hundred years + afterward, Catholics and Protestants vied with each other in promoting + this growth. John Eck, the great opponent of Luther, gave to the world an + annotated edition of Aristotle's Physics, which was long authoritative in + the German universities; and, though the text is free from this doctrine, + the woodcut illustrating the earth's atmosphere shows most vividly, among + the clouds of mid-air, the devils who there reign supreme.(222) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (222) See Eck, Aristotelis Meteorologica, Augsburg, 1519. +</pre> + <p> + Luther, in the other religious camp, supported the superstition even more + zealously, asserting at times his belief that the winds themselves are + only good or evil spirits, and declaring that a stone thrown into a + certain pond in his native region would cause a dreadful storm because of + the devils, kept prisoners there.(223) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (223) For Luther, see the Table Talk; also Michelet, Life of Luther +(translated by Hazlitt, p. 321). +</pre> + <p> + Just at the close of the same century, Catholics and Protestants welcomed + alike the great work of Delrio. In this, the power of devils over the + elements is proved first from the Holy Scriptures, since, he declares, + "they show that Satan brought fire down from heaven to consume the + servants and flocks of Job, and that he stirred up a violent wind, which + overwhelmed in ruin the sons and daughters of Job at their feasting." + Next, Delrio insists on the agreement of all the orthodox fathers, that it + was the devil himself who did this, and attention is called to the fact + that the hail with which the Egyptians were punished is expressly declared + in Holy Scripture to have been brought by the evil angels. Citing from the + Apocalypse, he points to the four angels standing at the four corners of + the earth, holding back the winds and preventing their doing great damage + to mortals; and he dwells especially upon the fact that the devil is + called by the apostle a "prince of the power of the air." He then goes on + to cite the great fathers of the Church—Clement, Jerome, Augustine, + and Thomas Aquinas.(224) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (224) For Delrio, see his Disquisitiones Magicae, first printed at Liege +in 1599-1600, but reprinted again and again throughout the seventeenth +century. His interpretation of Psalm lxxviii, 47-49, was apparently +shared by the translators of our own authorized edition. For citations +by him, see Revelation vii, 1,; Ephesians ii, 2. Even according to +modern commentators (e.g., Alford), the word here translated "power" +denotes not MIGHT, but GOVERNMENT, COURT, HIERARCHY; and in this sense +it was always used by the ecclesiastical writers, whose conception +is best rendered by our plural—"powers." See Delrio, Disquisitiones +Magicae, lib. ii, c. 11. +</pre> + <p> + This doctrine was spread not only in ponderous treatises, but in light + literature and by popular illustrations. In the Compendium Maleficarum of + the Italian monk Guacci, perhaps the most amusing book in the whole + literature of witchcraft, we may see the witch, in propria persona, riding + the diabolic goat through the clouds while the storm rages around and + beneath her; and we may read a rich collection of anecdotes, largely + contemporary, which establish the required doctrine beyond question. + </p> + <p> + The first and most natural means taken against this work of Satan in the + air was prayer; and various petitions are to be found scattered through + the Christian liturgies—some very beautiful and touching. This means + of escape has been relied upon, with greater or less faith, from those + days to these. Various medieval saints and reformers, and devoted men in + all centuries, from St. Giles to John Wesley, have used it with results + claimed to be miraculous. Whatever theory any thinking man may hold in the + matter, he will certainly not venture a reproachful word: such prayers + have been in all ages a natural outcome of the mind of man in + trouble.(225) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (225) For Guacci, see his Compendium Maleficarum (Milan, 1608). For the +cases of St. Giles, John Wesley, and others stilling the tempests, see +Brewer, Dictionary of Miracles, s. v. Prayer. +</pre> + <p> + But against the "power of the air" were used other means of a very + different character and tendency, and foremost among these was exorcism. + In an exorcism widely used and ascribed to Pope Gregory XIII, the formula + is given: "I, a priest of Christ,... do command ye, most foul spirits, who + do stir up these clouds,... that ye depart from them, and disperse + yourselves into wild and untilled places, that ye may be no longer able to + harm men or animals or fruits or herbs, or whatsoever is designed for + human use." But this is mild, indeed, compared to some later exorcisms, as + when the ritual runs: "All the people shall rise, and the priest, turning + toward the clouds, shall pronounce these words: 'I exorcise ye, accursed + demons, who have dared to use, for the accomplishment of your iniquity, + those powers of Nature by which God in divers ways worketh good to + mortals; who stir up winds, gather vapours, form clouds, and condense them + into hail.... I exorcise ye,... that ye relinquish the work ye have begun, + dissolve the hail, scatter the clouds, disperse the vapours, and restrain + the winds.'" The rubric goes on to order that then there shall be a great + fire kindled in an open place, and that over it the sign of the cross + shall be made, and the one hundred and fourteenth Psalm chanted, while + malodorous substances, among them sulphur and asafoetida, shall be cast + into the flames. The purpose seems to have been literally to "smoke out" + Satan.(226) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (226) See Polidorus Valerius, Practica exorcistarum; also the Thesaurus +exorcismorum (Cologne, 1626), pp. 158-162. +</pre> + <p> + Manuals of exorcisms became important—some bulky quartos, others + handbooks. Noteworthy among the latter is one by the Italian priest + Locatelli, entitled Exorcisms most Powerful and Efficacious for the + Dispelling of Aerial Tempests, whether raised by Demons at their own + Instance or at the Beck of some Servant of the Devil.(227) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (227) That is, Exorcismi, etc. A "corrected" second edition was printed +at Laybach, 1680, in 24mo, to which is appended another manual of Preces +et conjurationes contra aereas tempestates, omnibus sacerdotibus utiles +et necessaria, printed at the monastery of Kempten (in Bavaria) in 1667. +The latter bears as epigraph the passage from the gospels describing +Christ's stilling of the winds. +</pre> + <p> + The Jesuit Gretser, in his famous book on Benedictions and Maledictions, + devotes a chapter to this subject, dismissing summarily the scepticism + that questions the power of devils over the elements, and adducing the + story of Job as conclusive.(228) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (228) See Gretser, De benedictionibus et maledictionibus, lib. ii, c. +48. +</pre> + <p> + Nor was this theory of exorcism by any means confined to the elder Church. + Luther vehemently upheld it, and prescribed especially the first chapter + of St. John's gospel as of unfailing efficacy against thunder and + lightning, declaring that he had often found the mere sign of the cross, + with the text, "The word was made flesh," sufficient to put storms to + flight.(229) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (229) So, at least, says Gretser (in his De ben. et aml., as above). +</pre> + <p> + From the beginning of the Middle Ages until long after the Reformation the + chronicles give ample illustration of the successful use of such + exorcisms. So strong was the belief in them that it forced itself into + minds comparatively rational, and found utterance in treatises of much + importance. + </p> + <p> + But, since exorcisms were found at times ineffectual, other means were + sought, and especially fetiches of various sorts. One of the earliest of + these appeared when Pope Alexander I, according to tradition, ordained + that holy water should be kept in churches and bedchambers to drive away + devils.(230) Another safeguard was found in relics, and of similar + efficacy were the so-called "conception billets" sold by the Carmelite + monks. They contained a formula upon consecrated paper, at which the devil + might well turn pale. Buried in the corner of a field, one of these was + thought to give protection against bad weather and destructive + insects.(231) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (230) "Instituit ut aqua quam sanctum appellamus sale admixta +interpositus sacris orationibus et in templis et in cubiculis ad +fugandos daemones retineretur." Platina, Vitae Pontif. But the story is +from the False Decretals. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (231) See Rydberg, The Magic of the Middle Ages, translated by Edgren, +pp. 63-66. +</pre> + <p> + But highest in repute during centuries was the Agnus Dei—a piece of + wax blessed by the Pope's own hand, and stamped with the well-known device + representing the "Lamb of God." Its powers were so marvellous that Pope + Urban V thought three of these cakes a fitting gift from himself to the + Greek Emperor. In the Latin doggerel recounting their virtues, their + meteorological efficacy stands first, for especial stress is laid on their + power of dispelling the thunder. The stress thus laid by Pope Urban, as + the infallible guide of Christendom, on the efficacy of this fetich, gave + it great value throughout Europe, and the doggerel verses reciting its + virtues sank deep into the popular mind. It was considered a most potent + means of dispelling hail, pestilence, storms, conflagrations, and + enchantments; and this feeling was deepened by the rules and rites for its + consecration. So solemn was the matter, that the manufacture and sale of + this particular fetich was, by a papal bull of 1471, reserved for the Pope + himself, and he only performed the required ceremony in the first and + seventh years of his pontificate. Standing unmitred, he prayed: "O God,... + we humbly beseech thee that thou wilt bless these waxen forms, figured + with the image of an innocent lamb,... that, at the touch and sight of + them, the faithful may break forth into praises, and that the crash of + hailstorms, the blast of hurricanes, the violence of tempests, the fury of + winds, and the malice of thunderbolts may be tempered, and evil spirits + flee and tremble before the standard of thy holy cross, which is graven + upon them."(232) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (232) These pious charms are still in use in the Church, and may be +found described in any ecclesiastical cyclopaedia. The doggerel verses +run as follows: +</pre> + <p> + "Tonitrua magna terret, Inimicos nostras domat Et peccata nostra delet; + Praegnantem cum partu salvat, Ab incendio praeservat, Dona dignis multa + confert, A subersione servat, Utque malis mala defert. A morte cita + liberat, Portio, quamvis parva sit, Et Cacodaemones fugat, Ut magna tamen + proficit." + </p> + <p> + See these verses cited in full faith, so late as 1743, in Father Vincent + of Berg's Enchiridium, pp. 23, 24, where is an ample statement of the + virtues of the Agnus Dei, and istructions for its use. A full account of + the rites used in consecrating this fetich, with the prayers and + benedictions which gave colour to this theory of the powers of the Agnus + Dei, may be found in the ritual of the Church. I have used the edition + entitled Sacrarum ceremoniarum sive rituum Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae libri + tres, Rome, 1560, in folio. The form of the papal prayer is as follows: + "Deus... te supplicater deprecamur, ut... has cereas formas, + innocentissimi agni imagine figuritas, benedicere... digneris, ut per ejus + tactum et visum fideles invitentur as laudes, fragor grandinum, procella + turbinum, impetus tempestatum, ventorum rabies, infesta tonitrua + temperentur, fugiant atque tremiscant maligni spiritus ante Sanctae Crucis + vexillum, quod in illis exculptum est...."(Sacr. Cer. Rom. Eccl., as + above). If any are curious as to the extent to which this consecrated wax + was a specific for all spiritual and most temporal ills during the + sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, let them consult the Jesuit Litterae + annuae, passim. + </p> + <p> + Another favourite means with the clergy of the older Church for bringing + to naught the "power of the air," was found in great processions bearing + statues, relics, and holy emblems through the streets. Yet even these were + not always immediately effective. One at Liege, in the thirteenth century, + thrice proved unsuccessful in bringing rain, when at last it was found + that the image of the Virgin had been forgotten! A new procession was at + once formed, the Salve Regina sung, and the rain came down in such + torrents as to drive the devotees to shelter.(233) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (233) John of Winterthur describes many such processions in Switzerland +in the thirteenth century, and all the monkish chronicles speak of them. +See also Rydberg, Magic of the Middle Ages, p. 74. +</pre> + <p> + In Catholic lands this custom remains to this day, and very important + features in these processions are the statues and the reliquaries of + patron saints. Some of these excel in bringing sunshine, others in + bringing rain. The Cathedral of Chartres is so fortunate as to possess + sundry relics of St. Taurin, especially potent against dry weather, and + some of St. Piat, very nearly as infallible against wet weather. In + certain regions a single saint gives protection alternately against wet + and dry weather—as, for example, St. Godeberte at Noyon. Against + storms St. Barbara is very generally considered the most powerful + protectress; but, in the French diocese of Limoges, Notre Dame de Crocq + has proved a most powerful rival, for when, a few years since, all the + neighbouring parishes were ravaged by storms, not a hailstone fell in the + canton which she protected. In the diocese of Tarbes, St. Exupere is + especially invoked against hail, peasants flocking from all the + surrounding country to his shrine.(234) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (234) As to protection by special saints as stated, see the Guide du +touriste et du pelerin a Chartes, 1867 (cited by "Paul Parfait," in his +Dossier des Pelerinages); also pp. 139-145 of the Dossier. +</pre> + <p> + But the means of baffling the powers of the air which came to be most + widely used was the ringing of consecrated church bells. + </p> + <p> + This usage had begun in the time of Charlemagne, and there is extant a + prohibition of his against the custom of baptizing bells and of hanging + certain tags(235) on their tongues as a protection against hailstorms; but + even Charlemagne was powerless against this current of medieval + superstition. Theological reasons were soon poured into it, and in the + year 968 Pope John XIII gave it the highest ecclesiastical sanction by + himself baptizing the great bell of his cathedral church, the Lateran, and + christening it with his own name.(236) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (235) Perticae. See Montanus, Hist. Nachricht van den Glocken (Chenmitz, +1726), p. 121; and Meyer, Der Aberglaube des Mittelalters, p. 186. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (236) For statements regarding Pope John and bell superstitions, see +Higgins's Anacalypsis, vol. ii, p. 70. See also Platina, Vitae Pontif., +s. v. John XIII, and Baronius, Annales Ecclesiastici, sub anno 968. +The conjecture of Baronius that the bell was named after St. John the +Baptist, is even more startling than the accepted tradition of the +Pope's sponsorship. +</pre> + <p> + This idea was rapidly developed, and we soon find it supported in + ponderous treatises, spread widely in sermons, and popularized in + multitudes of inscriptions cast upon the bells themselves. This branch of + theological literature may still be studied in multitudes of church towers + throughout Europe. A bell at Basel bears the inscription, "Ad fugandos + demones." Another, in Lugano, declares "The sound of this bell vanquishes + tempests, repels demons, and summons men." Another, at the Cathedral of + Erfurt, declares that it can "ward off lightning and malignant demons." A + peal in the Jesuit church at the university town of Pont-a-Mousson bore + the words, "They praise God, put to flight the clouds, affright the + demons, and call the people." This is dated 1634. Another bell in that + part of France declares, "It is I who dissipate the thunders"(Ego sum qui + dissipo tonitrua).(237) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (237) For these illustrations, with others equally striking, see Meyer, +Der Aberglaube des Mittelalters, pp. 185, 186. For the later examples, +see Germain, Anciennes cloches lorraines (Nancy, 1885), pp. 23, 27. +</pre> + <p> + Another, in one of the forest cantons of Switzerland, bears a doggerel + couplet, which may be thus translated: + </p> + <p> + "On the devil my spite I'll vent, And, God helping, bad weather + prevent."(238) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (238) "An dem Tufel will cih mich rachen, Mit der hilf gotz alle bosen +wetter erbrechen." (See Meyer, as above.) +</pre> + <p> + Very common were inscriptions embodying this doctrine in sonorous Latin. + </p> + <p> + Naturally, then, there grew up a ritual for the consecration of bells. + Knollys, in his quaint translation of the old chronicler Sleidan, gives us + the usage in the simple English of the middle of the sixteenth century: + </p> + <p> + "In lyke sorte (as churches) are the belles used. And first, forsouth, + they must hange so, as the Byshop may goe round about them. Whiche after + he hath sayde certen Psalmes, he consecrateth water and salte, and + mingleth them together, wherwith he washeth the belle diligently both + within and without, after wypeth it drie, and with holy oyle draweth in it + the signe of the crosse, and prayeth God, that whan they shall rynge or + sounde that bell, all the disceiptes of the devyll may vanyshe away, + hayle, thondryng, lightening, wyndes, and tempestes, and all untemperate + weathers may be aswaged. Whan he hath wipte out the crosse of oyle wyth a + linen cloth, he maketh seven other crosses in the same, and within one + only. After saying certen Psalmes, he taketh a payre of sensours and + senseth the bel within, and prayeth God to sende it good lucke. In many + places they make a great dyner, and kepe a feast as it were at a solemne + wedding."(239) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (239) Sleiden's Commentaries, English translation, as above, fol. 334 +(lib. xxi, sub anno 1549). +</pre> + <p> + These bell baptisms became matters of great importance. Popes, kings, and + prelates were proud to stand as sponsors. Four of the bells at the + Cathedral of Versailles having been destroyed during the French + Revolution, four new ones were baptized, on the 6th of January, 1824, the + Voltairean King, Louis XVIII, and the pious Duchess d'Angouleme standing + as sponsors. + </p> + <p> + In some of these ceremonies zeal appears to have outrun knowledge, and one + of Luther's stories, at the expense of the older Church, was that certain + authorities thus christened a bell "Hosanna," supposing that to be the + name of a woman. + </p> + <p> + To add to the efficacy of such baptisms, water was sometimes brought from + the river Jordan.(240) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (240) See Montanus, as above, who cites Beck, Lutherthum vor Luthero, +p. 294, for the statement that many bells were carried to the Jordan by +pilgrims for this purpose. +</pre> + <p> + The prayers used at bell baptisms fully recognise this doctrine. The + ritual of Paris embraces the petition that, "whensoever this bell shall + sound, it shall drive away the malign influences of the assailing spirits, + the horror of their apparitions, the rush of whirlwinds, the stroke of + lightning, the harm of thunder, the disasters of storms, and all the + spirits of the tempest." Another prayer begs that "the sound of this bell + may put to flight the fiery darts of the enemy of men"; and others vary + the form but not the substance of this petition. The great Jesuit + theologian, Bellarmin, did indeed try to deny the reality of this baptism; + but this can only be regarded as a piece of casuistry suited to Protestant + hardness of heart, or as strategy in the warfare against heretics.(241) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (241) For prayers at bell baptisms, see Arago, Oeuvres, Paris, 1854, +vol. iv, p. 322. +</pre> + <p> + Forms of baptism were laid down in various manuals sanctioned directly by + papal authority, and sacramental efficacy was everywhere taken for + granted.(242) The development of this idea in the older Church was too + strong to be resisted;(243) but, as a rule, the Protestant theologians of + the Reformation, while admitting that storms were caused by Satan and his + legions, opposed the baptism of bells, and denied the theory of their + influence in dispersing storms. Luther, while never doubting that + troublesome meteorological phenomena were caused by devils, regarded with + contempt the idea that the demons were so childish as to be scared by the + clang of bells; his theory made them altogether too powerful to be + affected by means so trivial. The great English Reformers, while also + accepting very generally the theory of diabolic interference in storms, + reproved strongly the baptizing of bells, as the perversion of a sacrament + and involving blasphemy. Bishop Hooper declared reliance upon bells to + drive away tempests, futile. Bishop Pilkington, while arguing that + tempests are direct instruments of God's wrath, is very severe against + using "unlawful means," and among these he names "the hallowed bell"; and + these opinions were very generally shared by the leading English + clergy.(244) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (242) As has often been pointed out, the ceremony was in all its +details—even to the sponsors, the wrapping a garment about the +baptised, the baptismal fee, the feast—precisely the same as when a +child was baptised. Magius, who is no sceptic, relates from his own +experience an instant of this sort, where a certain bishop stood sponsor +for two bells, giving them both his own name—William. (See his De +Tintinnabulis, vol. xiv.) +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (243) And no wonder, when the oracle of the Church, Thomas Aquinas, +expressly pronounced church bells, "provided they have been duly +consecrated and baptised," the foremost means of "frustrating the +atmospheric mischiefs of the devil," and likened steeples in which +bells are ringing to a hen brooding her chickens, "for the tones of the +consecrated metal repel the demons and avert storm and lightning"; when +pre-Reformation preachers of such universal currency as Johannes Herolt +declared, "Bells, as all agree, are baptised with the result that they +are secure from the power of Satan, terrify the demons, compel the +powers"; when Geiler of Kaiserberg especially commended bell-ringing +as a means of beating off the devil in storms; and when a canonist +like Durandus explained the purpose of the rite to be, that "the demons +hearing the trumpets of the Eternal King, to wit, the bells, may flee +in terror, and may cease from the stirring up of tempests." See Herolt, +Sermones Discipuli, vol. xvii, and Durandus, De ritibus ecclesiae, vol. +ii, p. 12. I owe the first of these citations to Rydberg, and the others +to Montanus. For Geiler, see Dacheux, Geiler de Kaiserberg, pp. 280, +281. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (244) The baptism of bells was indeed, one of the express complaints +of the German Protestant princes at the Reformation. See their Gravam. +Cent. German. Grav., p. 51. For Hooper, see his Early Writings, p. 197 +(in Parker Society Publications). For Pilkington, see his Works, p. +177 (in same). Among others sharing these opinions were Tyndale, Bishop +Ridley, Archbishop Sandys, Becon, Calfhill, and Rogers. It is to be +noted that all of these speak of the rite as "baptism." +</pre> + <p> + Toward the end of the sixteenth century the Elector of Saxony strictly + forbade the ringing of bells against storms, urging penance and prayer + instead; but the custom was not so easily driven out of the Protestant + Church, and in some quarters was developed a Protestant theory of a + rationalistic sort, ascribing the good effects of bell-ringing in storms + to the calling together of the devout for prayer or to the suggestion of + prayers during storms at night. As late as the end of the seventeenth + century we find the bells of Protestant churches in northern Germany rung + for the dispelling of tempests. In Catholic Austria this bell-ringing + seems to have become a nuisance in the last century, for the Emperor + Joseph II found it necessary to issue an edict against it; but this + doctrine had gained too large headway to be arrested by argument or edict, + and the bells may be heard ringing during storms to this day in various + remote districts in Europe.(245) For this was no mere superficial view. It + was really part of a deep theological current steadily developed through + the Middle Ages, the fundamental idea of the whole being the direct + influence of the bells upon the "Power of the Air"; and it is perhaps + worth our while to go back a little and glance over the coming of this + current into the modern world. Having grown steadily through the Middle + Ages, it appeared in full strength at the Reformation period; and in the + sixteenth century Olaus Magnus, Archbishop of Upsala and Primate of + Sweden, in his great work on the northern nations, declares it a + well-established fact that cities and harvests may be saved from lightning + by the ringing of bells and the burning of consecrated incense, + accompanied by prayers; and he cautions his readers that the workings of + the thunderbolt are rather to be marvelled at than inquired into. Even as + late as 1673 the Franciscan professor Lealus, in Italy, in a schoolbook + which was received with great applause in his region, taught + unhesitatingly the agency of demons in storms, and the power of bells over + them, as well as the portentousness of comets and the movement of the + heavens by angels. He dwells especially, too, upon the perfect protection + afforded by the waxen Agnus Dei. How strong this current was, and how + difficult even for philosophical minds to oppose, is shown by the fact + that both Descartes and Francis Bacon speak of it with respect, admitting + the fact, and suggesting very mildly that the bells may accomplish this + purpose by the concussion of the air.(246) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (245) For Elector of Saxony, see Peuchen, Disp. circa tempestates, +Jena, 1697. For the Protestant theory of bells, see, e. g., the Ciciones +Selectae of Superintendent Conrad Dieterich (cited by Peuchen, Disp. +circa tempestates). For Protestant ringing of bells to dispel tempests, +see Schwimmer, Physicalische Luftfragen, 1692 (cited by Peuchen, as +above). He pictures the whole population of a Thuringinian district +flocking to the churches on the approach of a storm. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (246) For Olaus Magnus, see the De gentibus septentrionalibus (Rome, +1555), lib. i, c. 12, 13. For Descartes, see his De meteor., cent. +2, 127. In his Historia Ventorum he again alludes to the belief, and +without comment. +</pre> + <p> + But no such moderate doctrine sufficed, and the renowned Bishop Binsfeld, + of Treves, in his noted treatise on the credibility of the confessions of + witches, gave an entire chapter to the effect of bells in calming + atmospheric disturbances. Basing his general doctrine upon the first + chapter of Job and the second chapter of Ephesians, he insisted on the + reality of diabolic agency in storms; and then, by theological reasoning, + corroborated by the statements extorted in the torture chamber, he showed + the efficacy of bells in putting the hellish legions to flight.(247) This + continued, therefore, an accepted tenet, developed in every nation, and + coming to its climax near the end of the seventeenth century. At that + period—the period of Isaac Newton—Father Augustine de Angelis, + rector of the Clementine College at Rome, published under the highest + Church authority his lectures upon meteorology. Coming from the centre of + Catholic Christendom, at so late a period, they are very important as + indicating what had been developed under the influence of theology during + nearly seventeen hundred years. This learned head of a great college at + the heart of Christendom taught that "the surest remedy against thunder is + that which our Holy Mother the Church practises, namely, the ringing of + bells when a thunderbolt impends: thence follows a twofold effect, + physical and moral—a physical, because the sound variously disturbs + and agitates the air, and by agitation disperses the hot exhalations and + dispels the thunder; but the moral effect is the more certain, because by + the sound the faithful are stirred to pour forth their prayers, by which + they win from God the turning away of the thunderbolt." Here we see in + this branch of thought, as in so many others, at the close of the + seventeenth century, the dawn of rationalism. Father De Angelis now keeps + demoniacal influence in the background. Little, indeed, is said of the + efficiency of bells in putting to flight the legions of Satan: the wise + professor is evidently preparing for that inevitable compromise which we + see in the history of every science when it is clear that it can no longer + be suppressed by ecclesiastical fulminations.(248) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (247) See Binsfeld, De Confessionbus Malef., pp. 308-314, edition of +1623. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (248) For De Angelis, see his Lectiones Meteorol., p. 75. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0041" id="link2H_4_0041"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III. THE AGENCY OF WITCHES. + </h2> + <p> + But, while this comparatively harmless doctrine of thwarting the powers of + the air by fetiches and bell-ringing was developed, there were evolved + another theory, and a series of practices sanctioned by the Church, which + must forever be considered as among the most fearful calamities in human + history. Indeed, few errors have ever cost so much shedding of innocent + blood over such wide territory and during so many generations. Out of the + old doctrine—pagan and Christian—of evil agency in atmospheric + phenomena was evolved the belief that certain men, women, and children may + secure infernal aid to produce whirlwinds, hail, frosts, floods, and the + like. + </p> + <p> + As early as the ninth century one great churchman, Agobard, Archbishop of + Lyons, struck a heavy blow at this superstition. His work, Against the + Absurd Opinion of the Vulgar touching Hail and Thunder, shows him to have + been one of the most devoted apostles of right reason whom human history + has known. By argument and ridicule, and at times by a lofty eloquence, he + attempted to breast this tide. One passage is of historical significance. + He declares: "The wretched world lies now under the tyranny of + foolishness; things are believed by Christians of such absurdity as no one + ever could aforetime induce the heathen to believe."(249) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (249) For a very interesting statement of Agobard's position and +work, with citations from his Liber contra insulsam vulgi opinionem +de grandine et tonitruis, see Poole, Illustrations of the History of +Mediaeval Thought, pp. 40 et seq. The works of Agobard are in vol. civ +of Migne's Patrol. Lat. +</pre> + <p> + All in vain; the tide of superstition continued to roll on; great + theologians developed it and ecclesiastics favoured it; until as we near + the end of the medieval period the infallible voice of Rome is heard + accepting it, and clinching this belief into the mind of Christianity. + For, in 1437, Pope Eugene IV, by virtue of the teaching power conferred on + him by the Almighty, and under the divine guarantee against any possible + error in the exercise of it, issued a bull exhorting the inquisitors of + heresy and witchcraft to use greater diligence against the human agents of + the Prince of Darkness, and especially against those who have the power to + produce bad weather. In 1445 Pope Eugene returned again to the charge, and + again issued instructions and commands infallibly committing the Church to + the doctrine. But a greater than Eugene followed, and stamped the idea yet + more deeply into the mind of the Church. On the 7th of December, 1484, + Pope Innocent VIII sent forth his bull Summis Desiderantes. Of all + documents ever issued from Rome, imperial or papal, this has doubtless, + first and last, cost the greatest shedding of innocent blood. Yet no + document was ever more clearly dictated by conscience. Inspired by the + scriptural command, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live," Pope Innocent + exhorted the clergy of Germany to leave no means untried to detect + sorcerers, and especially those who by evil weather destroy vineyards, + gardens, meadows, and growing crops. These precepts were based upon + various texts of Scripture, especially upon the famous statement in the + book of Job; and, to carry them out, witch-finding inquisitors were + authorized by the Pope to scour Europe, especially Germany, and a manual + was prepared for their use—the Witch-Hammer, Malleus Maleficarum. In + this manual, which was revered for centuries, both in Catholic and + Protestant countries, as almost divinely inspired, the doctrine of Satanic + agency in atmospheric phenomena was further developed, and various means + of detecting and punishing it were dwelt upon.(250) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (250) For the bull of Pope Eugene, see Raynaldus, Annales Eccl., pp. +1437, 1445. The Latin text of the bull Summis Desiderantes may now be +found in the Malleus Maleficarum, in Binsfeld's De Confessionibus cited +below, or in Roskoff's Geschichte des Teufles (Leipsic, 1869), vol. +i, pp. 222-225. There is, so far as I know, no good analysis, in any +English book, of the contents of the Witch-Hammer; but such may be +found in Roskoff's Geschichte des Teufels, or in Soldan's Geschichte der +Hexenprozesse. Its first dated edition is that of 1489; but Prof. Burr +has shown that it was printed as early as 1486. It was, happily, never +translated into any modern tongue. +</pre> + <p> + With the application of torture to thousands of women, in accordance with + the precepts laid down in the Malleus, it was not difficult to extract + masses of proof for this sacred theory of meteorology. The poor creatures, + writhing on the rack, held in horror by those who had been nearest and + dearest to them, anxious only for death to relieve their sufferings, + confessed to anything and everything that would satisfy the inquisitors + and judges. All that was needed was that the inquisitors should ask + leading questions(251) and suggest satisfactory answers: the prisoners, to + shorten the torture, were sure sooner or later to give the answer + required, even though they knew that this would send them to the stake or + scaffold. Under the doctrine of "excepted cases," there was no limit to + torture for persons accused of heresy or witchcraft; even the safeguards + which the old pagan world had imposed upon torture were thus thrown down, + and the prisoner MUST confess. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (251) For still extant lists of such questions, see the Zeitschrift +fur deutsche Culturgeschichte for 1858, pp. 522-528, or Diefenbach, +Der Hexenwahn in Deutschland, pp. 15-17. Father Vincent of Berg (in his +Enchiridium) gives a similar list for use by priests in the confession +of the accused. Manuscript lists of this sort which have actually done +service in the courts of Baden and Bavaria may be seen in the library of +Cornell University. +</pre> + <p> + The theological literature of the Middle Ages was thus enriched with + numberless statements regarding modes of Satanic influence on the weather. + Pathetic, indeed, are the records; and none more so than the confessions + of these poor creatures, chiefly women and children, during hundreds of + years, as to their manner of raising hailstorms and tempests. Such + confessions, by tens of thousands, are still to be found in the judicial + records of Germany, and indeed of all Europe. Typical among these is one + on which great stress was laid during ages, and for which the world was + first indebted to one of these poor women. Crazed by the agony of torture, + she declared that, returning with a demon through the air from the + witches' sabbath, she was dropped upon the earth in the confusion which + resulted among the hellish legions when they heard the bells sounding the + Ave Maria. It is sad to note that, after a contribution so valuable to + sacred science, the poor woman was condemned to the flames. This + revelation speedily ripened the belief that, whatever might be going on at + the witches' sabbath—no matter how triumphant Satan might be—at + the moment of sounding the consecrated bells the Satanic power was + paralyzed. This theory once started, proofs came in to support it, during + a hundred years, from the torture chambers in all parts of Europe. + </p> + <p> + Throughout the later Middle Ages the Dominicans had been the main agents + in extorting and promulgating these revelations, but in the centuries + following the Reformation the Jesuits devoted themselves with even more + keenness and vigour to the same task. Some curious questions incidentally + arose. It was mooted among the orthodox authorities whether the damage + done by storms should or should not be assessed upon the property of + convicted witches. The theologians inclined decidedly to the affirmative; + the jurists, on the whole, to the negative.(252) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (252) For proofs of the vigour of the Jesuits in this persecution, see +not only the histories of witchcraft, but also the Annuae litterae of +the Jesuits themselves, passim. +</pre> + <p> + In spite of these tortures, lightning and tempests continued, and great + men arose in the Church throughout Europe in every generation to point out + new cruelties for the discovery of "weather-makers," and new methods for + bringing their machinations to naught. + </p> + <p> + But here and there, as early as the sixteenth century, we begin to see + thinkers endeavouring to modify or oppose these methods. At that time + Paracelsus called attention to the reverberation of cannon as explaining + the rolling of thunder, but he was confronted by one of his greatest + contemporaries. Jean Bodin, as superstitious in natural as he was rational + in political science, made sport of the scientific theory, and declared + thunder to be "a flaming exhalation set in motion by evil spirits, and + hurled downward with a great crash and a horrible smell of sulphur." In + support of this view, he dwelt upon the confessions of tortured witches, + upon the acknowledged agency of demons in the Will-o'-the-wisp, and + specially upon the passage in the one hundred and fourth Psalm, "Who + maketh his angels spirits, his ministers a flaming fire." + </p> + <p> + To resist such powerful arguments by such powerful men was dangerous + indeed. In 1513, Pomponatius, professor at Padua, published a volume of + Doubts as to the Fourth Book of Aristotle's Meteorologica, and also dared + to question this power of devils; but he soon found it advisable to + explain that, while as a PHILOSOPHER he might doubt, yet as a CHRISTIAN he + of course believed everything taught by Mother Church—devils and all—and + so escaped the fate of several others who dared to question the agency of + witches in atmospheric and other disturbances. + </p> + <p> + A few years later Agrippa of Nettesheim made a somewhat similar effort to + breast this theological tide in northern Europe. He had won a great + reputation in various fields, but especially in natural science, as + science was then understood. Seeing the folly and cruelty of the + prevailing theory, he attempted to modify it, and in 1518, as Syndic of + Metz, endeavoured to save a poor woman on trial for witchcraft. But the + chief inquisitor, backed by the sacred Scriptures, the papal bulls, the + theological faculties, and the monks, was too strong for him; he was not + only forced to give up his office, but for this and other offences of a + similar sort was imprisoned, driven from city to city and from country to + country, and after his death his clerical enemies, especially the + Dominicans, pursued his memory with calumny, and placed over his grave + probably the most malignant epitaph ever written. + </p> + <p> + As to argument, these efforts were met especially by Jean Bodin in his + famous book, the Demonomanie des Sorciers, published in 1580. It was a + work of great power by a man justly considered the leading thinker in + France, and perhaps in Europe. All the learning of the time, divine and + human, he marshalled in support of the prevailing theory. With inexorable + logic he showed that both the veracity of sacred Scripture and the + infallibility of a long line of popes and councils of the Church were + pledged to it, and in an eloquent passage this great publicist warned + rulers and judges against any mercy to witches—citing the example of + King Ahab condemned by the prophet to die for having pardoned a man worthy + of death, and pointing significantly to King Charles IX of France, who, + having pardoned a sorcerer, died soon afterward.(253) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (253) To the argument cited above, Bodin adds: "Id certissimam daemonis +praesentiam significat; nam ubicunque daemones cum hominibus nefaria +societatis fide copulantur, foedissimum semper relinquunt sulphuris +odorem, quod sortilegi saepissime experiuntur et confitentur." See +Bodin's Universae Naturae Theatrum, Frankfort, 1597, pp. 208-211. The +first edition of the book by Pomponatius, which was the earliest of his +writings, is excessively rare, but it was reprinted at Venice just a +half-century later. It is in his De incantationibus, however, that he +speaks especially of devils. As to Pomponatius, see, besides these, +Creighton's History of the Papacy during the Reformation, and an +excellent essay in Franck's Moralistes et Philosophes. For Agrippa, +see his biography by Prof. Henry Morley, London, 1856. For Bodin, see +a statement of his general line of argument in Lecky, Rationalism in +Europe, vol. i, chap. 1. +</pre> + <p> + In the last years of the sixteenth century the persecutions for witchcraft + and magic were therefore especially cruel; and in the western districts of + Germany the main instrument in them was Binsfeld, Suffragan Bishop of + Treves. + </p> + <p> + At that time Cornelius Loos was a professor at the university of that + city. He was a devoted churchman, and one of the most brilliant opponents + of Protestantism, but he finally saw through the prevailing belief + regarding occult powers, and in an evil hour for himself embodied his idea + in a book entitled True and False Magic. The book, though earnest, was + temperate, but this helped him and his cause not at all. The texts of + Scripture clearly sanctioning belief in sorcery and magic stood against + him, and these had been confirmed by the infallible teachings of the + Church and the popes from time immemorial; the book was stopped in the + press, the manuscript confiscated, and Loos thrown into a dungeon. + </p> + <p> + The inquisitors having wrought their will upon him, in the spring of 1593 + he was brought out of prison, forced to recant on his knees before the + assembled dignitaries of the Church, and thenceforward kept constantly + under surveillance and at times in prison. Even this was considered too + light a punishment, and his arch-enemy, the Jesuit Delrio, declared that, + but for his death by the plague, he would have been finally sent to the + stake.(254) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (254) What remains of the manuscript of Loos, which until recently was +supposed to be lost, was found, hidden away on the shelves of the old +Jesuit library at Treves, by Mr. George Lincoln Burr, now a professor +at Cornell University; and Prof. Burr's copy of the manuscript is now in +the library of that institution. For a full account of the discovery +and its significance, see the New York Nation for November 11, 1886. The +facts regarding the after-life of Loos were discovered by Prof. Burr in +manuscript records at Brussels. +</pre> + <p> + That this threat was not unmeaning had been seen a few years earlier in a + case even more noted, and in the same city. During the last decades of the + sixteenth century, Dietrich Flade, an eminent jurist, was rector of the + University of Treves, and chief judge of the Electoral Court, and in the + latter capacity he had to pass judgment upon persons tried on the capital + charge of magic and witchcraft. For a time he yielded to the long line of + authorities, ecclesiastical and judicial, supporting the reality of this + crime; but he at last seems to have realized that it was unreal, and that + the confessions in his torture chamber, of compacts with Satan, riding on + broomsticks to the witch-sabbath, raising tempests, producing diseases, + and the like, were either the results of madness or of willingness to + confess anything and everything, and even to die, in order to shorten the + fearful tortures to which the accused were in all cases subjected until a + satisfactory confession was obtained. + </p> + <p> + On this conviction of the unreality of many at least of the charges Flade + seems to have acted, and he at once received his reward. He was arrested + by the authority of the archbishop and charged with having sold himself to + Satan—the fact of his hesitation in the persecution being perhaps + what suggested his guilt. He was now, in his turn, brought into the + torture chamber over which he had once presided, was racked until he + confessed everything which his torturers suggested, and finally, in 1589, + was strangled and burnt. + </p> + <p> + Of that trial a record exists in the library of Cornell University in the + shape of the original minutes of the case, and among them the depositions + of Flade when under torture, taken down from his own lips in the torture + chamber. In these depositions this revered and venerable scholar and + jurist acknowledged the truth of every absurd charge brought against him—anything, + everything, which would end the fearful torture: compared with that, death + was nothing.(255) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (255) For the case of Flade, see the careful study by Prof. Burr, +The Fate of Dietrich Flade, in the Papers of the American Historical +Association, 1891. +</pre> + <p> + Nor was even a priest secure who ventured to reveal the unreality of + magic. When Friedrich Spee, the Jesuit poet of western Germany, found, in + taking the confessions of those about to be executed for magic, that + without exception, just when about to enter eternity and utterly beyond + hope of pardon, they all retracted their confessions made under torture, + his sympathies as a man rose above his loyalty to his order, and he + published his Cautio Criminalis as a warning, stating with entire + moderation the facts he had observed and the necessity of care. But he did + not dare publish it under his own name, nor did he even dare publish it in + a Catholic town; he gave it to the world anonymously, and, in order to + prevent any tracing of the work to him through the confessional, he + secretly caused it to be published in the Protestant town of Rinteln. + </p> + <p> + Nor was this all. Nothing shows so thoroughly the hold that this belief in + magic had obtained as the conduct of Spee's powerful friend and + contemporary, John Philip von Schonborn, later the Elector and Prince + Archbishop of Mayence. + </p> + <p> + As a youth, Schonborn had loved and admired Spee, and had especially noted + his persistent melancholy and his hair whitened even in his young manhood. + On Schonborn's pressing him for the cause, Spee at last confessed that his + sadness, whitened hair, and premature old age were due to his + recollections of the scores of men and women and children whom he had been + obliged to see tortured and sent to the scaffold and stake for magic and + witchcraft, when he as their father confessor positively knew them to be + innocent. The result was that, when Schonborn became Elector and + Archbishop of Mayence, he stopped the witch persecutions in that province, + and prevented them as long as he lived. But here was shown the strength of + theological and ecclesiastical traditions and precedents. Even a man so + strong by family connections, and enjoying such great temporal and + spiritual power as Schonborn, dared not openly give his reasons for this + change of policy. So far as is known, he never uttered a word publicly + against the reality of magic, and under his successor in the electorate + witch trials were resumed. + </p> + <p> + The great upholders of the orthodox view retained full possession of the + field. The victorious Bishop Binsfeld, of Treves, wrote a book to prove + that everything confessed by the witches under torture, especially the + raising of storms and the general controlling of the weather, was worthy + of belief; and this book became throughout Europe a standard authority, + both among Catholics and Protestants. Even more inflexible was Remigius, + criminal judge in Lorraine. On the title-page of his manual he boasts that + within fifteen years he had sent nine hundred persons to death for this + imaginary crime.(256) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (256) For Spee and Schonborn, see Soldan and other German authorities. +There are copies of the first editions of the Cautio Criminalis in +the library of Cornell University. Binsfeld's book bore the title of +Tractatus de confessionibus maleficorum et sagarum. First published +at Treves in 1589, it appeared subsequently four times in the original +Latin, as well as in two distinct German translations, and in a French +one. Remigius's manual was entitled Daemonolatreia, and was first +printed at Lyons in 1595. +</pre> + <p> + Protestantism fell into the superstition as fully as Catholicism. In the + same century John Wier, a disciple of Agrippa, tried to frame a pious + theory which, while satisfying orthodoxy, should do something to check the + frightful cruelties around him. In his book De Praestigiis Daemonum, + published in 1563, he proclaimed his belief in witchcraft, but suggested + that the compacts with Satan, journeys through the air on broomsticks, + bearing children to Satan, raising storms and producing diseases—to + which so many women and children confessed under torture—were + delusions suggested and propagated by Satan himself, and that the persons + charged with witchcraft were therefore to be considered "as possessed"—that + is, rather as sinned against than sinning.(257) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (257) For Wier, or Weyer, see, besides his own works, the excellent +biography by Prof. Binz, of Bonn. +</pre> + <p> + But neither Catholics nor Protestants would listen for a moment to any + such suggestion. Wier was bitterly denounced and persecuted. Nor did + Bekker, a Protestant divine in Holland, fare any better in the following + century. For his World Bewitched, in which he ventured not only to + question the devil's power over the weather, but to deny his bodily + existence altogether, he was solemnly tried by the synod of his Church and + expelled from his pulpit, while his views were condemned as heresy, and + overwhelmed with a flood of refutations whose mere catalogue would fill + pages; and these cases were typical of many. + </p> + <p> + The Reformation had, indeed, at first deepened the superstition; the new + Church being anxious to show itself equally orthodox and zealous with the + old. During the century following the first great movement, the eminent + Lutheran jurist and theologian Benedict Carpzov, whose boast was that he + had read the Bible fifty-three times, especially distinguished himself by + his skill in demonstrating the reality of witchcraft, and by his cruelty + in detecting and punishing it. The torture chambers were set at work more + vigorously than ever, and a long line of theological jurists followed to + maintain the system and to extend it. + </p> + <p> + To argue against it, or even doubt it, was exceedingly dangerous. Even as + late as the beginning of the eighteenth century, when Christian Thomasius, + the greatest and bravest German between Luther and Lessing, began the + efforts which put an end to it in Protestant Germany, he did not dare at + first, bold as he was, to attack it in his own name, but presented his + views as the university thesis of an irresponsible student.(258) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (258) For Thomasius, see his various bigraphies by Luden and others; +also the treatises on witchcraft by Soldan and others. Manuscript notes +of his lectures, and copies of his earliest books on witchcraft as well +as on other forms of folly, are to be found in the library of Cornell +University. +</pre> + <p> + The same stubborn resistance to the gradual encroachment of the scientific + spirit upon the orthodox doctrine of witchcraft was seen in Great Britain. + Typical as to the attitude both of Scotch and English Protestants were the + theory and practice of King James I, himself the author of a book on + Demonology, and nothing if not a theologian. As to theory, his treatise on + Demonology supported the worst features of the superstition; as to + practice, he ordered the learned and acute work of Reginald Scot, The + Discoverie of Witchcraft, one of the best treatises ever written on the + subject, to be burned by the hangman, and he applied his own knowledge to + investigating the causes of the tempests which beset his bride on her + voyage from Denmark. Skilful use of unlimited torture soon brought these + causes to light. A Dr. Fian, while his legs were crushed in the "boots" + and wedges were driven under his finger nails, confessed that several + hundred witches had gone to sea in a sieve from the port of Leith, and had + raised storms and tempests to drive back the princess. + </p> + <p> + With the coming in of the Puritans the persecution was even more largely, + systematically, and cruelly developed. The great witch-finder, Matthew + Hopkins, having gone through the county of Suffolk and tested multitudes + of poor old women by piercing them with pins and needles, declared that + county to be infested with witches. Thereupon Parliament issued a + commission, and sent two eminent Presbyterian divines to accompany it, + with the result that in that county alone sixty persons were hanged for + witchcraft in a single year. In Scotland matters were even worse. The auto + da fe of Spain was celebrated in Scotland under another name, and with + Presbyterian ministers instead of Roman Catholic priests as the main + attendants. At Leith, in 1664, nine women were burned together. + Condemnations and punishments of women in batches were not uncommon. + Torture was used far more freely than in England, both in detecting + witches and in punishing them. The natural argument developed in hundreds + of pulpits was this: If the Allwise God punishes his creatures with + tortures infinite in cruelty and duration, why should not his ministers, + as far as they can, imitate him? + </p> + <p> + The strongest minds in both branches of the Protestant Church in Great + Britain devoted themselves to maintaining the superstition. The newer + scientific modes of thought, and especially the new ideas regarding the + heavens, revealed first by Copernicus and Galileo and later by Newton, + Huygens, and Halley, were gradually dissipating the whole domain of the + Prince of the Power of the Air; but from first to last a long line of + eminent divines, Anglican and Calvinistic, strove to resist the new + thought. On the Anglican side, in the seventeenth century, Meric Casaubon, + Doctor of Divinity and a high dignitary of Canterbury,—Henry More, + in many respects the most eminent scholar in the Church,—Cudworth, + by far the most eminent philosopher, and Dr. Joseph Glanvil, the most + cogent of all writers in favour of witchcraft, supported the orthodox + superstition in treatises of great power; and Sir Matthew Hale, the + greatest jurist of the period, condemning two women to be burned for + witchcraft, declared that he based his judgment on the direct testimony of + Holy Scripture. On the Calvinistic side were the great names of Richard + Baxter, who applauded some of the worst cruelties in England, and of + Increase and Cotton Mather, who stimulated the worst in America; and these + marshalled in behalf of this cruel superstition a long line of eminent + divines, the most earnest of all, perhaps, being John Wesley. + </p> + <p> + Nor was the Lutheran Church in Sweden and the other Scandinavian countries + behind its sister churches, either in persecuting witchcraft or in + repressing doubts regarding the doctrine which supported it. + </p> + <p> + But in spite of all these great authorities in every land, in spite of + such summary punishments as those of Flade, Loos, and Bekker, and in spite + of the virtual exclusion from church preferment of all who doubted the old + doctrine, the new scientific view of the heavens was developed more and + more; the physical sciences were more and more cultivated; the new + scientific atmosphere in general more and more prevailed; and at the end + of the seventeenth century this vast growth of superstition began to + wither and droop. Montaigne, Bayle, and Voltaire in France, Thomasius in + Germany, Calef in New England, and Beccaria in Italy, did much also to + create an intellectual and moral atmosphere fatal to it. + </p> + <p> + And here it should be stated, to the honour of the Church of England, that + several of her divines showed great courage in opposing the dominant + doctrine. Such men as Harsnet, Archbishop of York, and Morton, Bishop of + Lichfield, who threw all their influence against witch-finding cruelties + even early in the seventeenth century, deserve lasting gratitude. But + especially should honour be paid to the younger men in the Church, who + wrote at length against the whole system: such men as Wagstaffe and + Webster and Hutchinson, who in the humbler ranks of the clergy stood + manfully for truth, with the certainty that by so doing they were making + their own promotion impossible. + </p> + <p> + By the beginning of the eighteenth century the doctrine was evidently + dying out. Where torture had been abolished, or even made milder, + "weather-makers" no longer confessed, and the fundamental proofs in which + the system was rooted were evidently slipping away. Even the great + theologian Fromundus, at the University of Louvain, the oracle of his age, + who had demonstrated the futility of the Copernican theory, had foreseen + this and made the inevitable attempt at compromise, declaring that devils, + though OFTEN, are not ALWAYS or even for the most part the causes of + thunder. The learned Jesuit Caspar Schott, whose Physica Curiosa was one + of the most popular books of the seventeenth century, also ventured to + make the same mild statement. But even such concessions by such great + champions of orthodoxy did not prevent frantic efforts in various quarters + to bring the world back under the old dogma: as late as 1743 there was + published in Catholic Germany a manual by Father Vincent of Berg, in which + the superstition was taught to its fullest extent, with the declaration + that it was issued for the use of priests under the express sanction of + the theological professors of the University of Cologne; and twenty-five + years later, in 1768, we find in Protestant England John Wesley standing + firmly for witchcraft, and uttering his famous declaration, "The giving up + of witchcraft is in effect the giving up of the Bible." The latest notable + demonstration in Scotland was made as late as 1773, when "the divines of + the Associated Presbytery" passed a resolution declaring their belief in + witchcraft, and deploring the general scepticism regarding it.(259) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (259) For Carpzov and his successors, see authorities already given. +The best account of James's share in the extortion of confessions may +be found in the collection of Curious Tracts published at Edinburgh in +1820. See also King James's own Demonologie, and Pitcairn's Criminal +Trials of Scotland, vol. i, part ii, pp. 213-223. For Casaubon, see his +Credulity and Incredulity in Things Natural, pp. 66, 67. For Glanvil, +More, Casaubon, Baxter, Wesley, and others named, see Lecky, as above. +As to Increase Mather, in his sermons, already cited, on The Voice +of God in Stormy Winds, Boston, 1704, he says: "when there are great +tempests, the Angels oftentimes have a Hand therein.. .. Yea, and +sometimes, by Divine Permission, Evil Angels have a Hand in such Storms +and Tempests as are very hurtful to Men on the Earth." Yet "for the most +part, such Storms are sent by the Providence of God as a Sign of His +Displeasure for the Sins of Men," and sometimes "as Prognosticks and +terrible Warnings of Great Judgements not far off." From the height +of his erudition Mather thus rebukes the timid voice of scientific +scepticism: "There are some who would be esteemed the Wits of the World, +that ridicule those as Superstitious and Weak Persons, which look upon +Dreadful Tempests as Prodromous of other Judgements. Nevertheless, +the most Learned and Judicious Writers, not only of the Gentiles, but +amongst Christians, have Embraced such a Persuasion; their Sentiments +therein being Confirmed by the Experience of many Ages." For another +curious turn given to this theory, with reference to sanitary science, +see Deodat Lawson's famous sermon at Salem, in 1692, on Christ's +Fidelity a Shield against Satan's Malignity, p. 21 of the second +edition. For Cotton Mather, see his biography by Barrett Wendell, pp. +91, 92; also the chapter on Diabolism and Hysteria in this work. For +Fromundus, see his Meteorologica (London, 1656), lib. iii, c. 9, and +lib. ii, c. 3. For Schott, see his Physica Curiosa (edition of Wurzburg, +1667), p. 1249. For Father Vincent of Berg, see his Enchiridium +quadripartitum (Cologne, 1743). Besides benedictions and exorcisms for +all emergencies, it contains full directions for the manufacture of +Agnes Dei, and of another sacred panacea called "Heiligthum," not less +effective against evil powers,—gives formulae to be worn for protection +against the devil,—suggests a list of signs by which diabolical +possession may be recognised, and prescribes the question to be asked by +priests in the examination of witches. For Wesley, see his Journal for +1768. The whole citation is given in Lecky. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0042" id="link2H_4_0042"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IV. FRANKLIN'S LIGHTNING-ROD. + </h2> + <p> + But in the midst of these efforts by Catholics like Father Vincent and by + Protestants like John Wesley to save the old sacred theory, it received + its death-blow. In 1752 Franklin made his experiments with the kite on the + banks of the Schuylkill; and, at the moment when he drew the electric + spark from the cloud, the whole tremendous fabric of theological + meteorology reared by the fathers, the popes, the medieval doctors, and + the long line of great theologians, Catholic and Protestant, collapsed; + the "Prince of the Power of the Air" tumbled from his seat; the great + doctrine which had so long afflicted the earth was prostrated forever. + </p> + <p> + The experiment of Franklin was repeated in various parts of Europe, but, + at first, the Church seemed careful to take no notice of it. The old + church formulas against the Prince of the Power of the Air were still + used, but the theological theory, especially in the Protestant Church, + began to grow milder. Four years after Franklin's discovery Pastor Karl + Koken, member of the Consistory and official preacher to the City Council + of Hildesheim, was moved by a great hailstorm to preach and publish a + sermon on The Revelation of God in Weather. Of "the Prince of the Power of + the Air" he says nothing; the theory of diabolical agency he throws + overboard altogether; his whole attempt is to save the older and more + harmless theory, that the storm is the voice of God. He insists that, + since Christ told Nicodemus that men "know not whence the wind cometh," it + can not be of mere natural origin, but is sent directly by God himself, as + David intimates in the Psalm, "out of His secret places." As to the + hailstorm, he lays great stress upon the plague of hail sent by the + Almighty upon Egypt, and clinches all by insisting that God showed at + Mount Sinai his purpose to startle the body before impressing the + conscience. + </p> + <p> + While the theory of diabolical agency in storms was thus drooping and + dying, very shrewd efforts were made at compromise. The first of these + attempts we have already noted, in the effort to explain the efficacy of + bells in storms by their simple use in stirring the faithful to prayer, + and in the concession made by sundry theologians, and even by the great + Lord Bacon himself, that church bells might, under the sanction of + Providence, disperse storms by agitating the air. This gained ground + somewhat, though it was resisted by one eminent Church authority, who + answered shrewdly that, in that case, cannon would be even more pious + instruments. Still another argument used in trying to save this part of + the theological theory was that the bells were consecrated instruments for + this purpose, "like the horns at whose blowing the walls of Jericho + fell."(260) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (260) For Koken, see his Offenbarung Gottes in Wetter, Hildesheim, +c1756; and for the answer to Bacon, see Gretser's De Benedictionibus, +lib. ii, cap. 46. +</pre> + <p> + But these compromises were of little avail. In 1766 Father Sterzinger + attacked the very groundwork of the whole diabolic theory. He was, of + course, bitterly assailed, insulted, and hated; but the Church thought it + best not to condemn him. More and more the "Prince of the Power of the + Air" retreated before the lightning-rod of Franklin. The older Church, + while clinging to the old theory, was finally obliged to confess the + supremacy of Franklin's theory practically; for his lightning-rod did what + exorcisms, and holy water, and processions, and the Agnus Dei, and the + ringing of church bells, and the rack, and the burning of witches, had + failed to do. This was clearly seen, even by the poorest peasants in + eastern France, when they observed that the grand spire of Strasburg + Cathedral, which neither the sacredness of the place, nor the bells within + it, nor the holy water and relics beneath it, could protect from frequent + injuries by lightning, was once and for all protected by Franklin's rod. + Then came into the minds of multitudes the answer to the question which + had so long exercised the leading theologians of Europe and America, + namely, "Why should the Almighty strike his own consecrated temples, or + suffer Satan to strike them?" + </p> + <p> + Yet even this practical solution of the question was not received without + opposition. + </p> + <p> + In America the earthquake of 1755 was widely ascribed, especially in + Massachusetts, to Franklin's rod. The Rev. Thomas Prince, pastor of the + Old South Church, published a sermon on the subject, and in the appendix + expressed the opinion that the frequency of earthquakes may be due to the + erection of "iron points invented by the sagacious Mr. Franklin." He goes + on to argue that "in Boston are more erected than anywhere else in New + England, and Boston seems to be more dreadfully shaken. Oh! there is no + getting out of the mighty hand of God." + </p> + <p> + Three years later, John Adams, speaking of a conversation with Arbuthnot, + a Boston physician, says: "He began to prate upon the presumption of + philosophy in erecting iron rods to draw the lightning from the clouds. He + railed and foamed against the points and the presumption that erected + them. He talked of presuming upon God, as Peter attempted to walk upon the + water, and of attempting to control the artillery of heaven." + </p> + <p> + As late as 1770 religious scruples regarding lightning-rods were still + felt, the theory being that, as thunder and lightning were tokens of the + Divine displeasure, it was impiety to prevent their doing their full work. + Fortunately, Prof. John Winthrop, of Harvard, showed himself wise in this, + as in so many other things: in a lecture on earthquakes he opposed the + dominant theology; and as to arguments against Franklin's rods, he + declared, "It is as much our duty to secure ourselves against the effects + of lightning as against those of rain, snow, and wind by the means God has + put into our hands." + </p> + <p> + Still, for some years theological sentiment had to be regarded carefully. + In Philadelphia, a popular lecturer on science for some time after + Franklin's discovery thought it best in advertising his lectures to + explain that "the erection of lightning-rods is not chargeable with + presumption nor inconsistent with any of the principles either of natural + or revealed religion."(261) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (261) Regarding opposition to Franklin's rods in America, see Prince's +sermon, especially p. 23; also Quincy, History of Harvard University, +vol. ii, p. 219; also Works of John Adams, vol. ii, pp. 51, 52; also +Parton's Life of Franklin, vol. i, p. 294. +</pre> + <p> + In England, the first lightning conductor upon a church was not put up + until 1762, ten years after Franklin's discovery. The spire of St. Bride's + Church in London was greatly injured by lightning in 1750, and in 1764 a + storm so wrecked its masonry that it had to be mainly rebuilt; yet for + years after this the authorities refused to attach a lightning-rod. The + Protestant Cathedral of St. Paul's, in London, was not protected until + sixteen years after Franklin's discovery, and the tower of the great + Protestant church at Hamburg not until a year later still. As late as 1783 + it was declared in Germany, on excellent authority, that within a space of + thirty-three years nearly four hundred towers had been damaged and one + hundred and twenty bell-ringers killed. + </p> + <p> + In Roman Catholic countries a similar prejudice was shown, and its cost at + times was heavy. In Austria, the church of Rosenberg, in the mountains of + Carinthia, was struck so frequently and with such loss of life that the + peasants feared at last to attend service. Three times was the spire + rebuilt, and it was not until 1778—twenty-six years after Franklin's + discovery—that the authorities permitted a rod to be attached. Then + all trouble ceased. + </p> + <p> + A typical case in Italy was that of the tower of St. Mark's, at Venice. In + spite of the angel at its summit and the bells consecrated to ward off the + powers of the air, and the relics in the cathedral hard by, and the + processions in the adjacent square, the tower was frequently injured and + even ruined by lightning. In 1388 it was badly shattered; in 1417, and + again in 1489, the wooden spire surmounting it was utterly consumed; it + was again greatly injured in 1548, 1565, 1653, and in 1745 was struck so + powerfully that the whole tower, which had been rebuilt of stone and + brick, was shattered in thirty-seven places. Although the invention of + Franklin had been introduced into Italy by the physicist Beccaria, the + tower of St. Mark's still went unprotected, and was again badly struck in + 1761 and 1762; and not until 1766—fourteen years after Franklin's + discovery—was a lightning-rod placed upon it; and it has never been + struck since.(262) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (262) For reluctance in England to protect churches with Franklin's +rods, see Priestley, History of Electricity, London, 1775, vol. i, pp. +407, 465 et seq. +</pre> + <p> + So, too, though the beautiful tower of the Cathedral of Siena, protected + by all possible theological means, had been struck again and again, much + opposition was shown to placing upon it what was generally known as "the + heretical rod," but the tower was at last protected by Franklin's + invention, and in 1777, though a very heavy bolt passed down the rod, the + church received not the slightest injury. This served to reconcile + theology and science, so far as that city was concerned; but the case + which did most to convert the Italian theologians to the scientific view + was that of the church of San Nazaro, at Brescia. The Republic of Venice + had stored in the vaults of this church over two hundred thousand pounds + of powder. In 1767, seventeen years after Franklin's discovery, no rod + having been placed upon it, it was struck by lightning, the powder in the + vaults was exploded, one sixth of the entire city destroyed, and over + three thousand lives were lost.(263) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (263) See article on Lightning in the Edinburgh Review for October, +1844. +</pre> + <p> + Such examples as these, in all parts of Europe, had their effect. The + formulas for conjuring off storms, for consecrating bells to ward off + lightning and tempests, and for putting to flight the powers of the air, + were still allowed to stand in the liturgies; but the lightning-rod, the + barometer, and the thermometer, carried the day. A vigorous line of + investigators succeeding Franklin completed his victory, The traveller in + remote districts of Europe still hears the church bells ringing during + tempests; the Polish or Italian peasant is still persuaded to pay fees for + sounding bells to keep off hailstorms; but the universal tendency favours + more and more the use of the lightning-rod, and of the insurance offices + where men can be relieved of the ruinous results of meteorological + disturbances in accordance with the scientific laws of average, based upon + the ascertained recurrence of storms. So, too, though many a poor seaman + trusts to his charm that has been bathed in holy water, or that has + touched some relic, the tendency among mariners is to value more and more + those warnings which are sent far and wide each day over the earth and + under the sea by the electric wires in accordance with laws ascertained by + observation. + </p> + <p> + Yet, even in our own time, attempts to revive the old theological doctrine + of meteorology have not been wanting. Two of these, one in a Roman + Catholic and another in a Protestant country, will serve as types of many, + to show how completely scientific truth has saturated and permeated minds + supposed to be entirely surrendered to the theological view. + </p> + <p> + The Island of St. Honorat, just off the southern coast of France, is + deservedly one of the places most venerated in Christendom. The monastery + of Lerins, founded there in the fourth century, became a mother of similar + institutions in western Europe, and a centre of religious teaching for the + Christian world. In its atmosphere, legends and myths grew in beauty and + luxuriance. Here, as the chroniclers tell us, at the touch of St. Honorat, + burst forth a stream of living water, which a recent historian of the + monastery declares a greater miracle than that of Moses; here he + destroyed, with a touch of his staff, the reptiles which infested the + island, and then forced the sea to wash away their foul remains. Here, to + please his sister, Sainte-Marguerite, a cherry tree burst into full bloom + every month; here he threw his cloak upon the waters and it became a raft, + which bore him safely to visit the neighbouring island; here St. Patrick + received from St. Just the staff with which he imitated St. Honorat by + driving all reptiles from Ireland. Pillaged by Saracens and pirates, the + island was made all the more precious by the blood of Christian martyrs. + Popes and kings made pilgrimages to it; saints, confessors, and bishops + went forth from it into all Europe; in one of its cells St. Vincent of + Lerins wrote that famous definition of pure religion which, for nearly + fifteen hundred years, has virtually superseded that of St. James. + Naturally the monastery became most illustrious, and its seat "the + Mediterranean Isle of Saints." + </p> + <p> + But toward the close of the last century, its inmates having become + slothful and corrupt, it was dismantled, all save a small portion torn + down, and the island became the property first of impiety, embodied in a + French actress, and finally of heresy, embodied in an English clergyman. + </p> + <p> + Bought back for the Church by the Bishop of Frejus in 1859, there was + little revival of life for twelve years. Then came the reaction, religious + and political, after the humiliation of France and the Vatican by Germany; + and of this reaction the monastery of St. Honorat was made one of the most + striking outward and visible signs. Pius IX interested himself directly in + it, called into it a body of Cistercian monks, and it became the chief + seat of their order in France. To restore its sacredness the strict system + of La Trappe was established—labour, silence, meditation on death. + The word thus given from Rome was seconded in France by cardinals, + archbishops, and all churchmen especially anxious for promotion in this + world or salvation in the next. Worn-out dukes and duchesses of the + Faubourg Saint-Germain united in this enterprise of pious reaction with + the frivolous youngsters, the petits creves, who haunt the purlieus of + Notre Dame de Lorette. The great church of the monastery was handsomely + rebuilt and a multitude of altars erected; and beautiful frescoes and + stained windows came from the leaders of the reaction. The whole effect + was, perhaps, somewhat theatrical and thin, but it showed none the less + earnestness in making the old "Isle of Saints" a protest against the hated + modern world. + </p> + <p> + As if to bid defiance still further to modern liberalism, great store of + relics was sent in; among these, pieces of the true cross, of the white + and purple robes, of the crown of thorns, sponge, lance, and winding-sheet + of Christ,—the hair, robe, veil, and girdle of the Blessed Virgin; + relics of St. John the Baptist, St. Joseph, St. Mary Magdalene, St. Paul, + St. Barnabas, the four evangelists, and a multitude of other saints: so + many that the bare mention of these treasures requires twenty-four + distinct heads in the official catalogue recently published at the + monastery. Besides all this—what was considered even more powerful + in warding off harm from the revived monastery—the bones of + Christian martyrs were brought from the Roman catacombs and laid beneath + the altars.(264) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (264) See the Guide des Visiteurs a Lerins, published at the Monastery +in 1880, p. 204; also the Histoire de Lerins, mentioned below. +</pre> + <p> + All was thus conformed to the medieval view; nothing was to be left which + could remind one of the nineteenth century; the "ages of faith" were to be + restored in their simplicity. Pope Leo XIII commended to the brethren the + writings of St. Thomas Aquinas as their one great object of study, and + works published at the monastery dwelt upon the miracles of St. Honorat as + the most precious refutation of modern science. + </p> + <p> + High in the cupola, above the altars and relics, were placed the bells. + Sent by pious donors, they were solemnly baptized and consecrated in 1871, + four bishops officiating, a multitude of the faithful being present from + all parts of Europe, and the sponsors of the great tenor bell being the + Bourbon claimant to the ducal throne of Parma and his duchess. The good + bishop who baptized the bells consecrated them with a formula announcing + their efficacy in driving away the "Prince of the Power of the Air" and + the lightning and tempests he provokes. + </p> + <p> + And then, above all, at the summit of the central spire, high above + relics, altars, and bells, was placed—A LIGHTNING-ROD!(265) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (265) See Guide, as above, p. 84. Les Isles de Lerins, by the Abbe +Alliez (Paris, 1860), and the Histoire de Lerins, by the same author, +are the authorities for the general history of the abbey, and are +especially strong in presenting the miracles of St. Honorat, etc. The +Cartulaire of the monastery, recently published, is also valuable. But +these do not cover the recent revival, for an account of which recourse +must be had to the very interesting and naive Guide already cited. +</pre> + <p> + The account of the monastery, published under the direction of the present + worthy abbot, more than hints at the saving, by its bells, of a ship which + was wrecked a few years since on that coast; and yet, to protect the bells + and church and monks and relics from the very foe whom, in the medieval + faith, all these were thought most powerful to drive away, recourse was + had to the scientific discovery of that "arch-infidel," Benjamin Franklin! + </p> + <p> + Perhaps the most striking recent example in Protestant lands of this + change from the old to the new occurred not long since in one of the great + Pacific dependencies of the British crown. At a time of severe drought an + appeal was made to the bishop, Dr. Moorhouse, to order public prayers for + rain. The bishop refused, advising the petitioners for the future to take + better care of their water supply, virtually telling them, "Heaven helps + those who help themselves." But most noteworthy in this matter was it that + the English Government, not long after, scanning the horizon to find some + man to take up the good work laid down by the lamented Bishop Fraser, of + Manchester, chose Dr. Moorhouse; and his utterance upon meteorology, which + a few generations since would have been regarded by the whole Church as + blasphemy, was universally alluded to as an example of strong good sense, + proving him especially fit for one of the most important bishoprics in + England. + </p> + <p> + Throughout Christendom, the prevalence of the conviction that meteorology + is obedient to laws is more and more evident. In cities especially, where + men are accustomed each day to see posted in public places charts which + show the storms moving over various parts of the country, and to read in + the morning papers scientific prophecies as to the weather, the old view + can hardly be very influential. + </p> + <p> + Significant of this was the feeling of the American people during the + fearful droughts a few years since in the States west of the Missouri. No + days were appointed for fasting and prayer to bring rain; there was no + attribution of the calamity to the wrath of God or the malice of Satan; + but much was said regarding the folly of our people in allowing the upper + regions of their vast rivers to be denuded of forests, thus subjecting the + States below to alternations of drought and deluge. Partly as a result of + this, a beginning has been made of teaching forest culture in many + schools, tree-planting societies have been formed, and "Arbor Day" is + recognised in several of the States. A true and noble theology can hardly + fail to recognise, in the love of Nature and care for our fellow-men thus + promoted, something far better, both from a religious and a moral point of + view, than any efforts to win the Divine favour by flattery, or to avert + Satanic malice by fetichism. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XII. FROM MAGIC TO CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS. + </h2> + <p> + I. + </p> + <p> + In all the earliest developments of human thought we find a strong + tendency to ascribe mysterious powers over Nature to men and women + especially gifted or skilled. Survivals of this view are found to this day + among savages and barbarians left behind in the evolution of civilization, + and especially is this the case among the tribes of Australia, Africa, and + the Pacific coast of America. Even in the most enlightened nations still + appear popular beliefs, observances, or sayings, drawn from this earlier + phase of thought. + </p> + <p> + Between the prehistoric savage developing this theory, and therefore + endeavouring to deal with the powers of Nature by magic, and the modern + man who has outgrown it, appears a long line of nations struggling upward + through it. As the hieroglyphs, cuneiform inscriptions, and various other + records of antiquity are read, the development of this belief can be + studied in Egypt, India, Babylonia, Assyria, Persia, and Phoenicia. From + these civilizations it came into the early thought of Greece and Rome, but + especially into the Jewish and Christian sacred books. Both in the Old + Testament and in the New we find magic, witchcraft, and soothsaying + constantly referred to as realities.(266) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (266) For magic in prehistoric times and survivals of it since, with +abundant citation of authorities, see Tylor, Primitive Culture, chap. +iv; also The Early History of Mankind, by the same author, third +edition, pp. 115 et seq., also p. 380.; also Andrew Lang, Myth, Ritual, +and Religion, vol. i, chap iv. For magic in Egypt, see Lenormant, +Chaldean Magic, chaps. vi-viii; also Maspero, Histoire Ancienne des +Peuples de l'Orient; also Maspero and Sayce, The Dawn of Civilization, +p. 282, and for the threat of magicians to wreck heaven, see ibid, p. +17, note, and especially the citations from Chabas, Le Papyrus Magique +Harris, in chap. vii; also Maury, La Magie et l'Astrologie dans +l'Antiquite et au Moyen Age. For magic in Chaldea, see Lenormant as +above; also Maspero and Sayce, pp. 780 et seq. For examples of magical +powers in India, see Max Muller's Sacred Books of the East, vol. xvi, +pp. 121 et seq. For a legendary view of magic in Media, see the Zend +Avesta, part i, p. 14, translated by Darmsteter; and for a more highly +developed view, see the Zend Avesta, part iii, p. 239, translated by +Mill. For magic in Greece and Rome, and especially in the Neoplatonic +school, as well as in the Middle Ages, see especially Maury, La Magie +et l'Astrologie, chaps. iii-v. For various sorts of magic recognised and +condemned in our sacred books, see Deuteronomy xviii, 10, 11; and for +the burning of magical books at Ephesus under the influence of St. +Paul, see Acts xix, 14. See also Ewald, History of Israel, Martineau's +translation, fourth edition, vol. iii, pp. 45-51. For a very elaborate +summing up of the passages in our sacred books recognizing magic as a +fact, see De Haen, De Magia, Leipsic, 1775, chaps. i, ii, and iii, of +the first part. For the general subject of magic, see Ennemoser, History +of Magic, translated by Howitt, which, however, constantly mixes sorcery +with magic proper. +</pre> + <p> + The first distinct impulse toward a higher view of research into natural + laws was given by the philosophers of Greece. It is true that + philosophical opposition to physical research was at times strong, and + that even a great thinker like Socrates considered certain physical + investigations as an impious intrusion into the work of the gods. It is + also true that Plato and Aristotle, while bringing their thoughts to bear + upon the world with great beauty and force, did much to draw mankind away + from those methods which in modern times have produced the best results. + </p> + <p> + Plato developed a world in which the physical sciences had little if any + real reason for existing; Aristotle, a world in which the same sciences + were developed largely indeed by observation of what is, but still more by + speculation on what ought to be. From the former of these two great men + came into Christian theology many germs of medieval magic, and from the + latter sundry modes of reasoning which aided in the evolution of these; + yet the impulse to human thought given by these great masters was of + inestimable value to our race, and one legacy from them was especially + precious—the idea that a science of Nature is possible, and that the + highest occupation of man is the discovery of its laws. Still another gift + from them was greatest of all, for they gave scientific freedom. They laid + no interdict upon new paths; they interposed no barriers to the extension + of knowledge; they threatened no doom in this life or in the next against + investigators on new lines; they left the world free to seek any new + methods and to follow any new paths which thinking men could find. + </p> + <p> + This legacy of belief in science, of respect for scientific pursuits, and + of freedom in scientific research, was especially received by the school + of Alexandria, and above all by Archimedes, who began, just before the + Christian era, to open new paths through the great field of the inductive + sciences by observation, comparison, and experiment.(267) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (267) As to the beginnings of physical science in Greece, and of +the theological opposition to physical science, also Socrates's view +regarding certain branches as interdicted to human study, see Grote's +History of Greece, vol. i, pp. 495 and 504, 505; also Jowett's +introduction to his translation of the Timaeus, and Whewell's History +of the Inductive Sciences. For examples showing the incompatibility of +Plato's methods in physical science with that pursued in modern times, +see Zeller, Plato and the Older Academy, English translation by Alleyne +and Goodwin, pp. 375 et. seq. The supposed opposition to freedom of +opinion in the Laws of Plato, toward the end of his life, can hardly +make against the whole spirit of Greek thought. +</pre> + <p> + The establishment of Christianity, beginning a new evolution of theology, + arrested the normal development of the physical sciences for over fifteen + hundred years. The cause of this arrest was twofold: First, there was + created an atmosphere in which the germs of physical science could hardly + grow—an atmosphere in which all seeking in Nature for truth as truth + was regarded as futile. The general belief derived from the New Testament + Scriptures was, that the end of the world was at hand; that the last + judgment was approaching; that all existing physical nature was soon to be + destroyed: hence, the greatest thinkers in the Church generally poured + contempt upon all investigators into a science of Nature, and insisted + that everything except the saving of souls was folly. + </p> + <p> + This belief appears frequently through the entire period of the Middle + Ages; but during the first thousand years it is clearly dominant. From + Lactantius and Eusebius, in the third century, pouring contempt, as we + have seen, over studies in astronomy, to Peter Damian, the noted + chancellor of Pope Gregory VII, in the eleventh century, declaring all + worldly sciences to be "absurdities" and "fooleries," it becomes a very + important element in the atmosphere of thought.(268) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (268) For the view of Peter Damian and others through the Middle Ages +as to the futility of scientific investigation, see citations in Eicken, +Geschichte und System der mittelalterlichen Weltanschauung, chap. vi. +</pre> + <p> + Then, too, there was established a standard to which all science which did + struggle up through this atmosphere must be made to conform—a + standard which favoured magic rather than science, for it was a standard + of rigid dogmatism obtained from literal readings in the Jewish and + Christian Scriptures. The most careful inductions from ascertained facts + were regarded as wretchedly fallible when compared with any view of nature + whatever given or even hinted at in any poem, chronicle, code, apologue, + myth, legend, allegory, letter, or discourse of any sort which had + happened to be preserved in the literature which had come to be held as + sacred. + </p> + <p> + For twelve centuries, then, the physical sciences were thus discouraged or + perverted by the dominant orthodoxy. Whoever studied nature studied it + either openly to find illustrations of the sacred text, useful in the + "saving of souls," or secretly to gain the aid of occult powers, useful in + securing personal advantage. Great men like Bede, Isidore of Seville, and + Rabanus Maurus, accepted the scriptural standard of science and used it as + a means of Christian edification. The views of Bede and Isidore on kindred + subjects have been shown in former chapters; and typical of the view taken + by Rabanus is the fact that in his great work on the Universe there are + only two chapters which seem directly or indirectly to recognise even the + beginnings of a real philosophy of nature. A multitude of less-known men + found warrant in Scripture for magic applied to less worthy purposes.(269) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (269) As typical examples, see utterances of Eusibius and Lactantius +regarding astronomers given in the chapter on Astronomy. For a summary +of Rabanus Maurus's doctrine of physics, see Heller, Geschichte der +Physik, vol. i, pp. 172 et seq. For Bede and Isidore, see the earlier +chapters of this work. For an excellent statement regarding the +application of scriptural standards to scientific research in the +Middle Ages, see Kretschemr, Die physische Erdkunde im christlichen +Mittelalter, pp. 5 et seq. For the distinctions in magic recognised in +the mediaeval Church, see the long catalogue of various sorts given in +the Abbe Migne's Encyclopedie Theologique, third series, article Magic. +</pre> + <p> + But after the thousand years had passed to which various thinkers in the + Church, upon supposed scriptural warrant, had lengthened out the term of + the earth's existence, "the end of all things" seemed further off than + ever; and in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, owing to causes which + need not be dwelt upon here, came a great revival of thought, so that the + forces of theology and of science seemed arrayed for a contest. On one + side came a revival of religious fervour, and to this day the works of the + cathedral builders mark its depth and strength; on the other side came a + new spirit of inquiry incarnate in a line of powerful thinkers. + </p> + <p> + First among these was Albert of Bollstadt, better known as Albert the + Great, the most renowned scholar of his time. Fettered though he was by + the methods sanctioned in the Church, dark as was all about him, he had + conceived better methods and aims; his eye pierced the mists of + scholasticism. he saw the light, and sought to draw the world toward it. + He stands among the great pioneers of physical and natural science; he + aided in giving foundations to botany and chemistry; he rose above his + time, and struck a heavy blow at those who opposed the possibility of + human life on opposite sides of the earth; he noted the influence of + mountains, seas, and forests upon races and products, so that Humboldt + justly finds in his works the germs of physical geography as a + comprehensive science. + </p> + <p> + But the old system of deducing scientific truth from scriptural texts was + renewed in the development of scholastic theology, and ecclesiastical + power, acting through thousands of subtle channels, was made to aid this + development. The old idea of the futility of physical science and of the + vast superiority of theology was revived. Though Albert's main effort was + to Christianize science, he was dealt with by the authorities of the + Dominican order, subjected to suspicion and indignity, and only escaped + persecution for sorcery by yielding to the ecclesiastical spirit of the + time, and working finally in theological channels by, scholastic methods. + </p> + <p> + It was a vast loss to the earth; and certainly, of all organizations that + have reason to lament the pressure of ecclesiasticism which turned Albert + the Great from natural philosophy to theology, foremost of all in regret + should be the Christian Church, and especially the Roman branch of it. Had + there been evolved in the Church during the thirteenth century a faith + strong enough to accept the truths in natural science which Albert and his + compeers could have given, and to have encouraged their growth, this faith + and this encouragement would to this day have formed the greatest argument + for proving the Church directly under Divine guidance; they would have + been among the brightest jewels in her crown. The loss to the Church by + this want of faith and courage has proved in the long run even greater + than the loss to science.(270) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (270) For a very careful discussion of Albert's strength in +investigation and weakness in yielding to scholastic authority, see +Kopp, Ansichten uber die Aufgabe der Chemie von Geber bis Stahl, +Braunschweig, 1875, pp. 64 et seq. For a very extended and enthusiastic +biographical sketch, see Pouchet. For comparison of his work with that +of Thomas Aquinas, see Milman, History of Latin Christianity, vol. vi, +p. 461. "Il etat aussi tres-habile dans les arts mecaniques, ce que le +fit soupconner d'etre sorcier" (Sprengel, Histoire de la Medecine, vol. +ii, p. 389). For Albert's biography treated strictly in accordance +with ecclesiastical methods, see Albert the Great, by Joachim Sighart, +translated by the Rev. T. A. Dickson, of the Order of Preachers, +published under the sanction of the Dominican censor and of the Cardinal +Archbishop of Westminster, London, 1876. How an Englishman like Cardinal +Manning could tolerate among Englishmen such glossing over of historical +truth is one of the wonders of contemporary history. For choice +specimens, see chapters ii, and iv. For one of the best and most recent +summaries, see Heller, Geschichte der Physik, Stuttgart, 1882, vol. i, +pp. 179 et seq. +</pre> + <p> + The next great man of that age whom the theological and ecclesiastical + forces of the time turned from the right path was Vincent of Beauvais. + During the first half of the twelfth century he devoted himself to the + study of Nature in several of her most interesting fields. To astronomy, + botany, and zoology he gave special attention, but in a larger way he made + a general study of the universe, and in a series of treatises undertook to + reveal the whole field of science. But his work simply became a vast + commentary on the account of creation given in the book of Genesis. + Beginning with the work of the Trinity at the creation, he goes on to + detail the work of angels in all their fields, and makes excursions into + every part of creation, visible and invisible, but always with the most + complete subordination of his thought to the literal statements of + Scripture. Could he have taken the path of experimental research, the + world would have been enriched with most precious discoveries; but the + force which had given wrong direction to Albert of Bollstadt, backed as it + was by the whole ecclesiastical power of his time, was too strong, and in + all the life labour of Vincent nothing appears of any permanent value. He + reared a structure which the adaptation of facts to literal + interpretations of Scripture and the application of theological subtleties + to nature combine to make one of the most striking monuments of human + error.(271) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (271) For Vincent de Beauvais, see Etudes sur Vincent de Beauvais, par +l'Abbe Bourgeat, chaps. xii, xiii, and xiv; also Pouchet, Histoire des +Sciences Naturelles au Moyen Age, Paris, 1853, pp. 470 et seq; also +other histories cited hereafter. +</pre> + <p> + But the theological spirit of the thirteenth century gained its greatest + victory in the work of St. Thomas Aquinas. In him was the theological + spirit of his age incarnate. Although he yielded somewhat at one period to + love of natural science, it was he who finally made that great treaty or + compromise which for ages subjected science entirely to theology. He it + was who reared the most enduring barrier against those who in that age and + in succeeding ages laboured to open for science the path by its own + methods toward its own ends. + </p> + <p> + He had been the pupil of Albert the Great, and had gained much from him. + Through the earlier systems of philosophy, as they were then known, and + through the earlier theologic thought, he had gone with great labour and + vigour; and all his mighty powers, thus disciplined and cultured, he + brought to bear in making a truce which was to give theology permanent + supremacy over science. + </p> + <p> + The experimental method had already been practically initiated: Albert of + Bollstadt and Roger Bacon had begun their work in accordance with its + methods; but St. Thomas gave all his thoughts to bringing science again + under the sway of theological methods and ecclesiastical control. In his + commentary on Aristotle's treatise upon Heaven and Earth he gave to the + world a striking example of what his method could produce, illustrating + all the evils which arise in combining theological reasoning and literal + interpretation of Scripture with scientific facts; and this work remains + to this day a monument of scientific genius perverted by theology.(272) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (272) For citations showing this subordination of science to theology, +see Eicken, chap. vi. +</pre> + <p> + The ecclesiastical power of the time hailed him as a deliverer, it was + claimed that miracles were vouchsafed, proving that the blessing of Heaven + rested upon his labours, and among the legends embodying this claim is + that given by the Bollandists and immortalized by a renowned painter. The + great philosopher and saint is represented in the habit of his order, with + book and pen in hand, kneeling before the image of Christ crucified, and + as he kneels the image thus addresses him: "Thomas, thou hast written well + concerning me; what price wilt thou receive for thy labour?" The + myth-making faculty of the people at large was also brought into play. + According to a widespread and circumstantial legend, Albert, by magical + means, created an android—an artificial man, living, speaking, and + answering all questions with such subtlety that St. Thomas, unable to + answer its reasoning, broke it to pieces with his staff. + </p> + <p> + Historians of the Roman Church like Rohrbacher, and historians of science + like Pouchet, have found it convenient to propitiate the Church by + dilating upon the glories of St. Thomas Aquinas in thus making an alliance + between religious and scientific thought, and laying the foundations for a + "sanctified science"; but the unprejudiced historian can not indulge in + this enthusiastic view: the results both for the Church and for science + have been most unfortunate. It was a wretched delay in the evolution of + fruitful thought, for the first result of this great man's great + compromise was to close for ages that path in science which above all + others leads to discoveries of value—the experimental method—and + to reopen that old path of mixed theology and science which, as Hallam + declares, "after three or four hundred years had not untied a single knot + or added one unequivocal truth to the domain of philosophy"—the path + which, as all modern history proves, has ever since led only to delusion + and evil.(273) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (273) For the work of Aquinas, see his Liber de Caelo et Mundo, section +xx; also Life and Labours of St. Thomas of Aquin, by Archbishop Vaughn, +pp. 459 et seq. For his labours in natural science, see Hoefer, Histoire +de la Chimie, Paris, 1843, vol. i, p. 381. For theological views of +science in the Middle Ages, and rejoicing thereat, see Pouchet, Hist. +des Sci. Nat. au Moyen Age, ubi supra. Pouchet says: " En general au +milieu du moyen age les sciences sont essentiellement chretiennes, +leur but est tout-a-fait religieux, et elles sembent beaucoup moins +s'inquieter de l'avancement intellectuel de l'homme que de son salut +eternel." Pouchet calls this "conciliation" into a "harmonieux ensemble" +"la plus glorieuse des conquetes intellectuelles du moyen age." Pouchet +belongs to Rouen, and the shadow of the Rouen Cathedral seems thrown +over all his history. See, also, l'Abbe Rohrbacher, Hist. de l'Eglise +Catholique, Paris, 1858, vol. xviii, pp. 421 et seq. The abbe dilates +upon the fact that "the Church organizes the agreement of all the +sciences by the labours of St. Thomas of Aquin and his contemporaries." +For the complete subordination of science to theology by St. Thomas, see +Eicken, chap. vi. For the theological character of science in the +Middle Ages, recognised by a Protestant philosophic historian, see the +well-known passage in Guizot, History of Civilization in Europe; and +by a noted Protestant ecclesiatic, see Bishop Hampden's Life of Thomas +Aquinas, chaps. xxxvi, xxxvii; see also Hallam, Middle Ages, chap. ix. +For dealings of Pope John XXII, of the Kings of France and England, and +of the Republic of Venice, see Figuier, L'Alchimie et la Alchimistes, +pp. 140, 141, where, in a note, the text of the bull Spondet paritur is +given. For popular legends regarding Albert and St. Thomas, see Eliphas +Levi, Hist. de la Magie, liv. iv, chap. iv. +</pre> + <p> + The theological path thus opened by these strong men became the main path + for science during ages, and it led the world ever further and further + from any fruitful fact or useful method. Roger Bacon's investigations + already begun were discredited: worthless mixtures of scriptural legends + with imperfectly authenticated physical facts took their place. Thus it + was that for twelve hundred years the minds in control of Europe regarded + all real science as FUTILE, and diverted the great current of earnest + thought into theology. + </p> + <p> + The next stage in this evolution was the development of an idea which + acted with great force throughout the Middle Ages—the idea that + science is DANGEROUS. This belief was also of very ancient origin. From + the time when the Egyptian magicians made their tremendous threat that + unless their demands were granted they would reach out to the four corners + of the earth, pull down the pillars of heaven, wreck the abodes of the + gods above and crush those of men below, fear of these representatives of + science is evident in the ancient world. + </p> + <p> + But differences in the character of magic were recognised, some sorts + being considered useful and some baleful. Of the former was magic used in + curing diseases, in determining times auspicious for enterprises, and even + in contributing to amusement; of the latter was magic used to bring + disease and death on men and animals or tempests upon the growing crops. + Hence gradually arose a general distinction between white magic, which + dealt openly with the more beneficent means of nature, and black magic, + which dealt secretly with occult, malignant powers. + </p> + <p> + Down to the Christian era the fear of magic rarely led to any persecution + very systematic or very cruel. While in Greece and Rome laws were at times + enacted against magicians, they were only occasionally enforced with + rigour, and finally, toward the end of the pagan empire, the feeling + against them seemed dying out altogether. As to its more kindly phases, + men like Marcus Aurelius and Julian did not hesitate to consult those who + claimed to foretell the future. As to black magic, it seemed hardly worth + while to enact severe laws, when charms, amulets, and even gestures could + thwart its worst machinations. + </p> + <p> + Moreover, under the old empire a real science was coming in, and thought + was progressing. Both the theory and practice of magic were more and more + held up to ridicule. Even as early a writer as Ennius ridiculed the idea + that magicians, who were generally poor and hungry themselves, could + bestow wealth on others; Pliny, in his Natural Philosophy, showed at great + length their absurdities and cheatery; others followed in the same line of + thought, and the whole theory, except among the very lowest classes, + seemed dying out. + </p> + <p> + But with the development of Christian theology came a change. The idea of + the active interference of Satan in magic, which had come into the Hebrew + mind with especial force from Persia during the captivity of Israel, had + passed from the Hebrew Scriptures into Christianity, and had been made + still stronger by various statements in the New Testament. Theologians + laid stress especially upon the famous utterances of the Psalmist that + "all the gods of the heathen are devils," and of St. Paul that "the things + which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils"; and it was widely + held that these devils were naturally indignant at their dethronement and + anxious to wreak vengeance upon Christianity. Magicians were held to be + active agents of these dethroned gods, and this persuasion was + strengthened by sundry old practitioners in the art of magic—impostors + who pretended to supernatural powers, and who made use of old rites and + phrases inherited from paganism. + </p> + <p> + Hence it was that as soon as Christianity came into power it more than + renewed the old severities against the forbidden art, and one of the first + acts of the Emperor Constantine after his conversion was to enact a most + severe law against magic and magicians, under which the main offender + might be burned alive. But here, too, it should be noted that a + distinction between the two sorts of magic was recognised, for Constantine + shortly afterward found it necessary to issue a proclamation stating that + his intention was only to prohibit deadly and malignant magic; that he had + no intention of prohibiting magic used to cure diseases and to protect the + crops from hail and tempests. But as new emperors came to the throne who + had not in them that old leaven of paganism which to the last influenced + Constantine, and as theology obtained a firmer hold, severity against + magic increased. Toleration of it, even in its milder forms, was more and + more denied. Black magic and white were classed together. + </p> + <p> + This severity went on increasing and threatened the simplest efforts in + physics and chemistry; even the science of mathematics was looked upon + with dread. By the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the older theology + having arrived at the climax of its development in Europe, terror of magic + and witchcraft took complete possession of the popular mind. In sculpture, + painting, and literature it appeared in forms ever more and more striking. + The lives of saints were filled with it. The cathedral sculpture embodied + it in every part. The storied windows made it all the more impressive. The + missal painters wrought it not only into prayer books, but, despite the + fact that hardly a trace of the belief appears in the Psalms, they + illustrated it in the great illuminated psalters from which the noblest + part of the service was sung before the high altar. The service books + showed every form of agonizing petition for delivery from this dire + influence, and every form of exorcism for thwarting it. + </p> + <p> + All the great theologians of the Church entered into this belief and aided + to develop it. The fathers of the early Church were full and explicit, and + the medieval doctors became more and more minute in describing the + operations of the black art and in denouncing them. It was argued that, as + the devil afflicted Job, so he and his minions continue to cause diseases; + that, as Satan is the Prince of the power of the air, he and his minions + cause tempests; that the cases of Nebuchadnezzar and Lot's wife prove that + sorcerers can transform human beings into animals or even lifeless matter; + that, as the devils of Gadara were cast into swine, all animals could be + afflicted in the same manner; and that, as Christ himself had been + transported through the air by the power of Satan, so any human being + might be thus transported to "an exceeding high mountain." + </p> + <p> + Thus the horror of magic and witchcraft increased on every hand, and in + 1317 Pope John XXII issued his bull Spondent pariter, levelled at the + alchemists, but really dealing a terrible blow at the beginnings of + chemical science. That many alchemists were knavish is no doubt true, but + no infallibility in separating the evil from the good was shown by the + papacy in this matter. In this and in sundry other bulls and briefs we + find Pope John, by virtue of his infallibility as the world's instructor + in all that pertains to faith and morals, condemning real science and + pseudo-science alike. In two of these documents, supposed to be inspired + by wisdom from on high, he complains that both he and his flock are in + danger of their lives by the arts of the sorcerers; he declares that such + sorcerers can send devils into mirrors and finger rings, and kill men and + women by a magic word; that they had tried to kill him by piercing a waxen + image of him with needles in the name of the devil. He therefore called on + all rulers, secular and ecclesiastical, to hunt down the miscreants who + thus afflicted the faithful, and he especially increased the powers of + inquisitors in various parts of Europe for this purpose. + </p> + <p> + The impulse thus given to childish fear and hatred against the + investigation of nature was felt for centuries; more and more chemistry + came to be known as one of the "seven devilish arts." + </p> + <p> + Thus began a long series of demonstrations against magic from the centre + of Christendom. In 1437, and again in 1445, Pope Eugene IV issued bulls + exhorting inquisitors to be more diligent in searching out and delivering + over to punishment magicians and witches who produced bad weather, the + result being that persecution received a fearful impulse. But the worst + came forty years later still, when, in 1484, there came the yet more + terrible bull of Pope Innocent VIII, known as Summis Desiderantes, which + let inquisitors loose upon Germany, with Sprenger at their head, armed + with the Witch-Hammer, the fearful manual Malleus Maleficarum, to torture + and destroy men and women by tens of thousands for sorcery and magic. + Similar bulls were issued in 1504 by Julius II, and in 1523 by Adrian VI. + </p> + <p> + The system of repression thus begun lasted for hundreds of years. The + Reformation did little to change it, and in Germany, where Catholics and + Protestants vied with each other in proving their orthodoxy, it was at its + worst. On German soil more than one hundred thousand victims are believed + to have been sacrificed to it between the middle of the fifteenth and the + middle of the sixteenth centuries. + </p> + <p> + Thus it was that from St. Augustine to St. Thomas Aquinas, from Aquinas to + Luther, and from Luther to Wesley, theologians of both branches of the + Church, with hardly an exception, enforced the belief in magic and + witchcraft, and, as far as they had power, carried out the injunction, + "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." + </p> + <p> + How this was ended by the progress of scientific modes of thought I shall + endeavour to show elsewhere: here we are only concerned with the effect of + this widespread terrorism on the germs and early growth of the physical + sciences. + </p> + <p> + Of course, the atmosphere created by this persecution of magicians was + deadly to any open beginnings of experimental science. The conscience of + the time, acting in obedience to the highest authorities of the Church, + and, as was supposed, in defence of religion, now brought out a missile + which it hurled against scientific investigators with deadly effect. The + mediaeval battlefields of thought were strewn with various forms of it. + This missile was the charge of unlawful compact with Satan, and it was + most effective. We find it used against every great investigator of nature + in those times and for ages after. The list of great men in those + centuries charged with magic, as given by Naude, is astounding; it + includes every man of real mark, and in the midst of them stands one of + the most thoughtful popes, Sylvester II (Gerbert), and the foremost of + mediaeval thinkers on natural science, Albert the Great. It came to be the + accepted idea that, as soon as a man conceived a wish to study the works + of God, his first step must be a league with the devil. + </p> + <p> + It was entirely natural, then, that in 1163 Pope Alexander III, in + connection with the Council of Tours, forbade the study of physics to all + ecclesiastics, which, of course, in that age meant prohibition of all such + scientific studies to the only persons likely to make them. What the Pope + then expressly forbade was, in the words of the papal bull, "the study of + physics or the laws of the world," and it was added that any person + violating this rule "shall be avoided by all and excommunicated."(274) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (274) For the charge of magic against scholars and others, see Naude, +Apologie pour les Grands Hommes soupconnes de Magie, passim; also Maury, +Hist. de la Magie, troisieme edition, pp. 214, 215; also Cuvier, Hist. +des Sciences Naturelles, vol. i, p. 396. For the prohibition by the +Council of Tours and Alexander III, see the Acta Conciliorum (ed. +Harduin), tom. vi, pars ii, p. 1598, Canon viii. +</pre> + <p> + The first great thinker who, in spite of some stumbling into theologic + pitfalls, persevered in a truly scientific path, was Roger Bacon. His life + and works seem until recently to have been generally misunderstood: he was + formerly ranked as a superstitious alchemist who happened upon some + inventions, but more recent investigation has shown him to be one of the + great masters in the evolution of human thought. The advance of sound + historical judgment seems likely to bring the fame of the two who bear the + name of Bacon nearly to equality. Bacon of the chancellorship and of the + Novum Organum may not wane, but Bacon of the prison cell and the Opus + Majus steadily approaches him in brightness. + </p> + <p> + More than three centuries before Francis Bacon advocated the experimental + method, Roger Bacon practised it, and the results as now revealed are + wonderful. He wrought with power in many sciences, and his knowledge was + sound and exact. By him, more than by any other man of the Middle Ages, + was the world brought into the more fruitful paths of scientific thought—the + paths which have led to the most precious inventions; and among these are + clocks, lenses, and burning specula, which were given by him to the world, + directly or indirectly. In his writings are found formulae for extracting + phosphorus, manganese, and bismuth. It is even claimed, with much + appearance of justice, that he investigated the power of steam, and he + seems to have very nearly reached some of the principal doctrines of + modern chemistry. But it should be borne in mind that his METHOD of + investigation was even greater than its RESULTS. In an age when + theological subtilizing was alone thought to give the title of scholar, he + insisted on REAL reasoning and the aid of natural science by mathematics; + in an age when experimenting was sure to cost a man his reputation, and + was likely to cost him his life, he insisted on experimenting, and braved + all its risks. Few greater men have lived. As we follow Bacon's process of + reasoning regarding the refraction of light, we see that he was divinely + inspired. + </p> + <p> + On this man came the brunt of the battle. The most conscientious men of + his time thought it their duty to fight him, and they fought him steadily + and bitterly. His sin was not disbelief in Christianity, not want of + fidelity to the Church, not even dissent from the main lines of orthodoxy; + on the contrary, he showed in all his writings a desire to strengthen + Christianity, to build up the Church, and to develop orthodoxy. He was + attacked and condemned mainly because he did not believe that philosophy + had become complete, and that nothing more was to be learned; he was + condemned, as his opponents expressly declared, "on account of certain + suspicious novelties"—"propter quasdam novitates suspectas." + </p> + <p> + Upon his return to Oxford, about 1250, the forces of unreason beset him on + all sides. Greatest of all his enemies was Bonaventura. This enemy was the + theologic idol of the period: the learned world knew him as the "seraphic + Doctor"; Dante gave him an honoured place in the great poem of the Middle + Ages; the Church finally enrolled him among the saints. By force of great + ability in theology he had become, in the middle of the thirteenth + century, general of the Franciscan order: thus, as Bacon's master, his + hands were laid heavily on the new teaching, so that in 1257 the + troublesome monk was forbidden to lecture; all men were solemnly warned + not to listen to his teaching, and he was ordered to Paris, to be kept + under surveillance by the monastic authorities. Herein was exhibited + another of the myriad examples showing the care exercised over scientific + teaching by the Church. The reasons for thus dealing with Bacon were + evident: First, he had dared attempt scientific explanations of natural + phenomena, which under the mystic theology of the Middle Ages had been + referred simply to supernatural causes. Typical was his explanation of the + causes and character of the rainbow. It was clear, cogent, a great step in + the right direction as regards physical science: but there, in the book of + Genesis, stood the legend regarding the origin of the rainbow, supposed to + have been dictated immediately by the Holy Spirit; and, according to that, + the "bow in the cloud" was not the result of natural laws, but a "sign" + arbitrarily placed in the heavens for the simple purpose of assuring + mankind that there was not to be another universal deluge. + </p> + <p> + But this was not the worst: another theological idea was arrayed against + him—the idea of Satanic intervention in science; hence he was + attacked with that goodly missile which with the epithets "infidel" and + "atheist" has decided the fate of so many battles—the charge of + magic and compact with Satan. + </p> + <p> + He defended himself with a most unfortunate weapon—a weapon which + exploded in his hands and injured him more than the enemy; for he argued + against the idea of compacts with Satan, and showed that much which is + ascribed to demons results from natural means. This added fuel to the + flame. To limit the power of Satan was deemed hardly less impious than to + limit the power of God. + </p> + <p> + The most powerful protectors availed him little. His friend Guy of + Foulques, having in 1265 been made Pope under the name of Clement IV, + shielded him for a time; but the fury of the enemy was too strong, and + when he made ready to perform a few experiments before a small audience, + we are told that all Oxford was in an uproar. It was believed that Satan + was about to be let loose. Everywhere priests, monks, fellows, and + students rushed about, their garments streaming in the wind, and + everywhere rose the cry, "Down with the magician!" and this cry, "Down + with the magician!" resounded from cell to cell and from hall to hall. + </p> + <p> + Another weapon was also used upon the battlefields of science in that time + with much effect. The Arabs had made many noble discoveries in science, + and Averroes had, in the opinion of many, divided the honours with St. + Thomas Aquinas; these facts gave the new missile—it was the epithet + "Mohammedan"; this, too, was flung with effect at Bacon. + </p> + <p> + The attack now began to take its final shape. The two great religious + orders, Franciscan and Dominican, then in all the vigour of their youth, + vied with each other in fighting the new thought in chemistry and physics. + St. Dominic solemnly condemned research by experiment and observation; the + general of the Franciscan order took similar ground. In 1243 the + Dominicans interdicted every member of their order from the study of + medicine and natural philosophy, and in 1287 this interdiction was + extended to the study of chemistry. + </p> + <p> + In 1278 the authorities of the Franciscan order assembled at Paris, + solemnly condemned Bacon's teaching, and the general of the Franciscans, + Jerome of Ascoli, afterward Pope, threw him into prison, where he remained + for fourteen years, Though Pope Clement IV had protected him, Popes + Nicholas III and IV, by virtue of their infallibility, decided that he was + too dangerous to be at large, and he was only released at the age of + eighty—but a year or two before death placed him beyond the reach of + his enemies. How deeply the struggle had racked his mind may be gathered + from that last affecting declaration of his, "Would that I had not given + myself so much trouble for the love of science!" + </p> + <p> + The attempt has been made by sundry champions of the Church to show that + some of Bacon's utterances against ecclesiastical and other corruptions in + his time were the main cause of the severity which the Church authorities + exercised against him. This helps the Church but little, even if it be + well based; but it is not well based. That some of his utterances of this + sort made him enemies is doubtless true, but the charges on which St. + Bonaventura silenced him, and Jerome of Ascoli imprisoned him, and + successive popes kept him in prison for fourteen years, were "dangerous + novelties" and suspected sorcery. + </p> + <p> + Sad is it to think of what this great man might have given to the world + had ecclesiasticism allowed the gift. He held the key of treasures which + would have freed mankind from ages of error and misery. With his + discoveries as a basis, with his method as a guide, what might not the + world have gained! Nor was the wrong done to that age alone; it was done + to this age also. The nineteenth century was robbed at the same time with + the thirteenth. But for that interference with science the nineteenth + century would be enjoying discoveries which will not be reached before the + twentieth century, and even later. Thousands of precious lives shall be + lost, tens of thousands shall suffer discomfort, privation, sickness, + poverty, ignorance, for lack of discoveries and methods which, but for + this mistaken dealing with Roger Bacon and his compeers, would now be + blessing the earth. + </p> + <p> + In two recent years sixty thousand children died in England and in Wales + of scarlet fever; probably quite as many died in the United States. Had + not Bacon been hindered, we should have had in our hands, by this time, + the means to save two thirds of these victims; and the same is true of + typhoid, typhus, cholera, and that great class of diseases of whose + physical causes science is just beginning to get an inkling. Put together + all the efforts of all the atheists who have ever lived, and they have not + done so much harm to Christianity and the world as has been done by the + narrow-minded, conscientious men who persecuted Roger Bacon, and closed + the path which he gave his life to open. + </p> + <p> + But despite the persecution of Bacon and the defection of those who ought + to have followed him, champions of the experimental method rose from time + to time during the succeeding centuries. We know little of them + personally; our main knowledge of their efforts is derived from the + endeavours of their persecutors. + </p> + <p> + Under such guidance the secular rulers were naturally vigorous. In France + Charles V forbade, in 1380, the possession of furnaces and apparatus + necessary for chemical processes; under this law the chemist John + Barrillon was thrown into prison, and it was only by the greatest effort + that his life was saved. In England Henry IV, in 1404, issued a similar + decree. In Italy the Republic of Venice, in 1418, followed these examples. + The judicial torture and murder of Antonio de Dominis were not simply for + heresy his investigations in the phenomena of light were an additional + crime. In Spain everything like scientific research was crushed out among + Christians. Some earnest efforts were afterward made by Jews and Moors, + but these were finally ended by persecution; and to this hour the Spanish + race, in some respects the most gifted in Europe, which began its career + with everything in its favour and with every form of noble achievement, + remains in intellectual development behind every other in Christendom. + </p> + <p> + To question the theological view of physical science was, even long after + the close of the Middle Ages, exceedingly perilous. We have seen how one + of Roger Bacon's unpardonable offences was his argument against the + efficacy of magic, and how, centuries afterward, Cornelius Agrippa, Weyer, + Flade, Loos, Bekker, and a multitude of other investigators and thinkers, + suffered confiscation of property, loss of position, and even torture and + death, for similar views.(275) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (275) For an account of Bacon's treatise, De Nullitate Magiae, see +Hoefer. For the uproar caused by Bacon's teaching at Oxford, see Kopp, +Geschichte der Chemie, Braunschweig, 1869, vol. i, p. 63; and for a +somewhat reactionary discussion of Bacon's relation to the progress +of chemistry, see a recent work by the same author, Ansichten uber die +Aufgabe der Chemie, Braunschweig, 1874, pp. 85 et seq.; also, for an +excellent summary, see Hoefer, Hist. de la Chimie, vol. i, pp. 368 et +seq. For probably the most thorough study of Bacon's general works +in science, and for his views of the universe, see Prof. Werner, Die +Kosmologie und allgemeine Naturlehre des Roger Baco, Wein, 1879. For +summaries of his work in other fields, see Whewell, vol. i, pp. 367, +368; Draper, p. 438; Saisset, Descartes et ses Precurseurs, deuxieme +edition, pp. 397 et seq.; Nourrisson, Progres de la Pensee humaine, pp. +271, 272; Sprengel, Histoire de la Medecine, Paris, 1865, vol. ii, p. +397; Cuvier, Histoire des Sciences Naturelles, vol. i, p. 417. As to +Bacon's orthodoxy, see Saisset, pp. 53, 55. For special examination of +causes of Bacon's condemnation, see Waddington, cited by Saisset, p. +14. For a brief but admirable statement of Roger Bacon's realtion to +the world in his time, and of what he might have done had he not been +thwarted by theology, see Dollinger, Studies in European History, +English translation, London, 1890, pp. 178, 179. For a good example of +the danger of denying the full power of Satan, even in much more recent +times and in a Protestant country, see account of treatment in Bekker's +Monde Enchante by the theologians of Holland, in Nisard, Histoire des +Livres Populaires, vol. i, pp. 172, 173. Kopp, in his Ansichten, pushes +criticism even to some scepticism as to Roger Bacon being the DISCOVERER +of many of the things generally attributed to him; but, after all +deductions are carefully made, enough remains to make Bacon the greatest +benefactor to humanity during the Middle Ages. For Roger Bacon's +deep devotion to religion and the Church, see citation and remarks in +Schneider, Roger Bacon, Augsburg, 1873, p. 112; also, citation from +the Opus Majus, in Eicken, chap. vi. On Bacon as a "Mohammedan," see +Saisset, p. 17. For the interdiction of studies in physical science by +the Dominicans and Franciscans, see Henri Martin, Histoire de France, +vol. iv, p. 283. For suppression of chemical teaching by the Parliament +of Paris, see ibid., vol. xii, pp. 14, 15. For proofs that the world is +steadily working toward great discoveries as to the cause and prevention +of zymotic diseases and their propogation, see Beale's Disease Germs, +Baldwin Latham's Sanitary Engineering, Michel Levy's Traite a Hygiene +Publique et Privee. For a summary of the bull Spondent pariter, and for +an example of injury done by it, see Schneider, Geschichte der +Alchemie, p. 160; and for a studiously moderate statement, Milman, Latin +Christianity, book xii, chap. vi. For character and general efforts of +John XXII, see Lea, Inquisition, vol. iii, p. 436, also pp. 452 et seq. +For the character of the two papal briefs, see Rydberg, p. 177. For +the bull Summis Desiderantes, see previous chapters of this work. For +Antonio de Dominis, see Montucla, Hist. des Mathematiques, vol. i, p. +705; Humboldt, Cosmos; Libri, vol. iv, pp. 145 et seq. For Weyer, Flade, +Bekker, Loos, and others, see the chapters of this work on Meteorology, +Demoniacal Possession and Insanity, and Diabolism and Hysteria. +</pre> + <p> + The theological atmosphere, which in consequence settled down about the + great universities and colleges, seemed likely to stifle all scientific + effort in every part of Europe, and it is one of the great wonders in + human history that in spite of this deadly atmosphere a considerable body + of thinking men, under such protection as they could secure, still + persisted in devoting themselves to the physical sciences. + </p> + <p> + In Italy, in the latter half of the sixteenth century, came a striking + example of the difficulties which science still encountered even after the + Renaissance had undermined the old beliefs. At that time John Baptist + Porta was conducting his investigations, and, despite a considerable + mixture of pseudo-science, they were fruitful. His was not "black magic," + claiming the aid of Satan, but "white magic," bringing into service the + laws of nature—the precursor of applied science. His book on + meteorology was the first in which sound ideas were broached on this + subject; his researches in optics gave the world the camera obscura, and + possibly the telescope; in chemistry he seems to have been the first to + show how to reduce the metallic oxides, and thus to have laid the + foundation of several important industries. He did much to change natural + philosophy from a black art to a vigorous open science. He encountered the + old ecclesiastical policy. The society founded by him for physical + research, "I Secreti," was broken up, and he was summoned to Rome by Pope + Paul III and forbidden to continue his investigations. + </p> + <p> + So, too, in France. In 1624, some young chemists at Paris having taught + the experimental method and cut loose from Aristotle, the faculty of + theology beset the Parliament of Paris, and the Parliament prohibited + these new chemical researches under the severest penalties. + </p> + <p> + The same war continued in Italy. Even after the belief in magic had been + seriously weakened, the old theological fear and dislike of physical + science continued. In 1657 occurred the first sitting of the Accademia del + Cimento at Florence, under the presidency of Prince Leopold de' Medici + This academy promised great things for science; it was open to all talent; + its only fundamental law was "the repudiation of any favourite system or + sect of philosophy, and the obligation to investigate Nature by the pure + light of experiment"; it entered into scientific investigations with + energy. Borelli in mathematics, Redi in natural history, and many others, + enlarged the boundaries of knowledge. Heat, light, magnetism, electricity, + projectiles, digestion, and the incompressibility of water were studied by + the right method and with results that enriched the world. + </p> + <p> + The academy was a fortress of science, and siege was soon laid to it. The + votaries of scholastic learning denounced it as irreligious, quarrels were + fomented, Leopold was bribed with a cardinal's hat and drawn away to Rome, + and, after ten years of beleaguering, the fortress fell: Borelli was left + a beggar; Oliva killed himself in despair. + </p> + <p> + So, too, the noted Academy of the Lincei at times incurred the ill will of + the papacy by the very fact that it included thoughtful investigators. It + was "patronized" by Pope Urban VIII in such manner as to paralyze it, and + it was afterward vexed by Pope Gregory XVI. Even in our own time sessions + of scientific associations were discouraged and thwarted by as kindly a + pontiff as Pius IX.(276) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (276) For Porta, see the English translation of his main summary, +Natural Magick, London, 1658. The first chapters are especially +interesting, as showing what the word "magic" had come to mean in the +mind of a man in whom mediaeval and modern ideas were curiously mixed; +see also Hoefer, Histoire de la Chimie, vol. ii, pp. 102-106; also +Kopp; also Sprengel, Histoire de la Medecine, vol. iii, p. 239; also +Musset-Pathay. For the Accademia del Cimento, see Napier, Florentine +History, vol. v, p. 485; Tiraboschi, Storia della Litteratura; Henri +Martin, Histoire de France; Jevons, Principles of Science, vol. ii, +pp. 36-40. For value attached to Borelli's investigations by Newton and +Huygens, see Brewster's Life of Sir Isaac Newton, London, 1875, pp. 128, +129. Libri, in his first Essai sur Galilee, p. 37, says that Oliva was +summoned to Rome and so tortured by the Inquisition that, to escape +further cruelty, he ended his life by throwing himself from a window. +For interference by Pope Gregory XVI with the Academy of the Lincei, and +with public instruction generally, see Carutti, Storia della Accademia +dei Lincei, p. 126. Pius IX, with all his geniality, seems to have +allowed his hostility to voluntary associations to carry him very far +at times. For his answer to an application made through Lord Odo Russell +regarding a society for the prevention of cruelty to animals and his +answer that "such an association could not be sanctioned by the Holy +See, being founded on a theological error, to wit, that Christians owed +any duties to animals," see Frances Power Cobbe, Hopes of the Human +Race, p. 207. +</pre> + <p> + A hostility similar in kind, though less in degree, was shown in + Protestant countries. + </p> + <p> + Even after Thomasius in Germany and Voltaire in France and Beccaria in + Italy had given final blows to the belief in magic and witchcraft + throughout Christendom, the traditional orthodox distrust of the physical + sciences continued for a long time. + </p> + <p> + In England a marked dislike was shown among various leading ecclesiastics + and theologians towards the Royal Society, and later toward the + Association for the Advancement of Science; and this dislike, as will + hereafter be seen, sometimes took shape in serious opposition. + </p> + <p> + As a rule, both in Protestant and Catholic countries instruction in + chemistry and physics was for a long time discouraged by Church + authorities; and, when its suppression was no longer possible, great pains + were taken to subordinate it to instruction supposed to be more fully in + accordance with the older methods of theological reasoning. + </p> + <p> + I have now presented in outline the more direct and open struggle of the + physical sciences with theology, mainly as an exterior foe. We will next + consider their warfare with the same foe in its more subtle form, mainly + as a vitiating and sterilizing principle in science itself. + </p> + <p> + We have seen thus far, first, how such men as Eusebius, Lactantius, and + their compeers, opposed scientific investigation as futile; next, how such + men as Albert the Great, St. Thomas Aquinas, and the multitude who + followed them, turned the main current of medieval thought from science to + theology; and, finally, how a long line of Church authorities from Popes + John XXII and Innocent VIII, and the heads of the great religious orders, + down to various theologians and ecclesiastics, Catholic and Protestant, of + a very recent period, endeavoured first to crush and afterward to + discourage scientific research as dangerous. + </p> + <p> + Yet, injurious as all this was to the evolution of science, there was + developed something in many respects more destructive; and this was the + influence of mystic theology, penetrating, permeating, vitiating, + sterilizing nearly every branch of science for hundreds of years. Among + the forms taken by this development in the earlier Middle Ages we find a + mixture of physical science with a pseudo-science obtained from texts of + Scripture. In compounding this mixture, Jews and Christians vied with each + other. In this process the sacred books were used as a fetich; every word, + every letter, being considered to have a divine and hidden meaning. By + combining various scriptural letters in various abstruse ways, new words + of prodigious significance in magic were obtained, and among them the + great word embracing the seventy-two mystical names of God—the + mighty word "Schemhamphoras." Why should men seek knowledge by observation + and experiment in the book of Nature, when the book of Revelation, + interpreted by the Kabbalah, opened such treasures to the ingenious + believer? + </p> + <p> + So, too, we have ancient mystical theories of number which the theological + spirit had made Christian, usurping an enormous place in medieval science. + The sacred power of the number three was seen in the Trinity; in the three + main divisions of the universe—the empyrean, the heavens, and the + earth; in the three angelic hierarchies; in the three choirs of seraphim, + cherubim, and thrones; in the three of dominions, virtues, and powers; in + the three of principalities, archangels, and angels; in the three orders + in the Church—bishops, priests, and deacons; in the three classes—the + baptized, the communicants, and the monks; in the three degrees of + attainment—light, purity, and knowledge; in the three theological + virtues—faith, hope, and charity—and in much else. All this + was brought into a theologico-scientific relation, then and afterward, + with the three dimensions of space; with the three divisions of time—past, + present, and future; with the three realms of the visible world—sky, + earth, and sea; with the three constituents of man—body, soul, and + spirit; with the threefold enemies of man—the world, the flesh, and + the devil; with the three kingdoms in nature—mineral, vegetable, and + animal; with "the three colours"—red, yellow, and blue; with "the + three eyes of the honey-bee"—and with a multitude of other analogues + equally precious. The sacred power of the number seven was seen in the + seven golden candlesticks and the seven churches in the Apocalypse; in the + seven cardinal virtues and the seven deadly sins; in the seven liberal + arts and the seven devilish arts, and, above all, in the seven sacraments. + And as this proved in astrology that there could be only seven planets, so + it proved in alchemy that there must be exactly seven metals. The twelve + apostles were connected with the twelve signs in the zodiac, and with much + in physical science. The seventy-two disciples, the seventy-two + interpreters of the Old Testament, the seventy-two mystical names of God, + were connected with the alleged fact in anatomy that there were + seventy-two joints in the human frame. + </p> + <p> + Then, also, there were revived such theologic and metaphysical substitutes + for scientific thought as the declaration that the perfect line is a + circle, and hence that the planets must move in absolute circles—a + statement which led astronomy astray even when the great truths of the + Copernican theory were well in sight; also, the declaration that nature + abhors a vacuum—a statement which led physics astray until + Torricelli made his experiments; also, the declaration that we see the + lightning before we hear the thunder because "sight is nobler than + hearing." + </p> + <p> + In chemistry we have the same theologic tendency to magic, and, as a + result, a muddle of science and theology, which from one point of view + seems blasphemous and from another idiotic, but which none the less + sterilized physical investigation for ages. That debased Platonism which + had been such an important factor in the evolution of Christian theology + from the earliest days of the Church continued its work. As everything in + inorganic nature was supposed to have spiritual significance, the + doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation were turned into an argument in + behalf of the philosopher's stone; arguments for the scheme of redemption + and for transubstantiation suggested others of similar construction to + prove the transmutation of metals; the doctrine of the resurrection of the + human body was by similar mystic jugglery connected with the processes of + distillation and sublimation. Even after the Middle Ages were past, strong + men seemed unable to break away from such reasoning as this—among + them such leaders as Basil Valentine in the fifteenth century, Agricola in + the sixteenth, and Van Helmont in the seventeenth. + </p> + <p> + The greatest theologians contributed to the welter of unreason from which + this pseudo-science was developed. One question largely discussed was, + whether at the Redemption it was necessary for God to take the human form. + Thomas Aquinas answered that it was necessary, but William Occam and Duns + Scotus answered that it was not; that God might have taken the form of a + stone, or of a log, or of a beast. The possibilities opened to wild + substitutes for science by this sort of reasoning were infinite. Men have + often asked how it was that the Arabians accomplished so much in + scientific discovery as compared with Christian investigators; but the + answer is easy: the Arabians were comparatively free from these theologic + allurements which in Christian Europe flickered in the air on all sides, + luring men into paths which led no-whither. + </p> + <p> + Strong investigators, like Arnold of Villanova, Raymond Lully, Basil + Valentine, Paracelsus, and their compeers, were thus drawn far out of the + only paths which led to fruitful truths. In a work generally ascribed to + the first of these, the student is told that in mixing his chemicals he + must repeat the psalm Exsurge Domine, and that on certain chemical vessels + must be placed the last words of Jesus on the cross. Vincent of Beauvais + insisted that, as the Bible declares that Noah, when five hundred years + old, had children born to him, he must have possessed alchemical means of + preserving life; and much later Dickinson insisted that the patriarchs + generally must have owed their long lives to such means. It was loudly + declared that the reality of the philosopher's stone was proved by the + words of St. John in the Revelation. "To him that overcometh I will give a + white stone." The reasonableness of seeking to develop gold out of the + baser metals was for many generations based upon the doctrine of the + resurrection of the physical body, which, though explicitly denied by St. + Paul, had become a part of the creed of the Church. Martin Luther was + especially drawn to believe in the alchemistic doctrine of transmutation + by this analogy. The Bible was everywhere used, both among Protestants and + Catholics, in support of these mystic adulterations of science, and one + writer, as late as 1751, based his alchemistic arguments on more than a + hundred passages of Scripture. As an example of this sort of reasoning, we + have a proof that the elect will preserve the philosopher's stone until + the last judgment, drawn from a passage in St. Paul's Epistle to the + Corinthians, "We have this treasure in earthen vessels." + </p> + <p> + The greatest thinkers devoted themselves to adding new ingredients to this + strange mixture of scientific and theologic thought. The Catholic + philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, the Protestant mysticism of Jacob Boehme, + and the alchemistic reveries of Basil Valentine were all cast into this + seething mass. + </p> + <p> + And when alchemy in its old form had been discredited, we find scriptural + arguments no less perverse, and even comical, used on the other side. As + an example of this, just before the great discoveries by Stahl, we find + the valuable scientific efforts of Becher opposed with the following + syllogism: "King Solomon, according to the Scriptures, possessed the + united wisdom of heaven and earth; but King Solomon knew nothing about + alchemy (or chemistry in the form it then took), and sent his vessels to + Ophir to seek gold, and levied taxes upon his subjects; ergo alchemy (or + chemistry) has no reality or truth." And we find that Becher is absolutely + turned away from his labours, and obliged to devote himself to proving + that Solomon used more money than he possibly could have obtained from + Ophir or his subjects, and therefore that he must have possessed a + knowledge of chemical methods and the philosopher's stone as the result of + them.(277) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (277) For an extract from Agrippa's Occulta Philosophia, giving examples +of the way in which mystical names were obtained from the Bible, see +Rydberg, Magic of the Middle Ages, pp. 143 et seq. For the germs of many +mystic beliefs regarding number and the like, which were incorporated +into mediaeval theology, see Zeller, Plato and the Older Academy, +English translation, pp. 254 and 572, and elsewhere. As to the +connection of spiritual things with inorganic nature in relation to +chemistry, see Eicken, p. 634. On the injury to science wrought by +Platonism acting through mediaeval theology, see Hoefer, Histoire de la +Chimie, vol. i, p. 90. As to the influence of mysticism upon strong men +in science, see Hoefer; also Kopp, Geschichte der Alchemie, vol. i, p. +211. For a very curious Catholic treatise on sacred numbers, see the +Abbe Auber, Symbolisme Religieux, Paris, 1870; also Detzel, Christliche +Ikonographie, pp. 44 et seq.; and for an equally important Protestant +work, see Samuell, Seven the Sacred number, London 1887. It is +interesting to note that the latter writer, having been forced to give +up the seven planets, consoles himself with the statement that "the +earth is the seventh planet, counting from Neptune and calling the +asteroids one" (see p. 426). For the electrum magicum, the seven +metals composing it, and its wonderful qualities, see extracts from +Paracelsus's writings in Hartmann's Life of Paracelsus, London, 1887, +pp. 168 et seq. As to the more rapid transition of light than sound, the +following expresses the scholastic method well: "What is the cause why +we see sooner the lightning than we heare the thunder clappe? That is +because our sight is both nobler and sooner perceptive of its object +than our eare; as being the more active part, and priore to our hearing: +besides, the visible species are more subtile and less corporeal than +the audible species."—Person's Varieties, Meteors, p. 82. For Basil +Valentine's view, see Hoefer, vol. i, pp. 453-465; Schmieder, Geschichte +der Alchemie, pp. 197-209; Allgemeine deutsche Biographies, article +Basilius. For the discussions referred to on possibilities of God +assuming forms of stone, or log, or beast, see Lippert, Christenthum, +Volksglaube, und Volksbrauch, pp. 372, 373, where citations are given, +etc. For the syllogism regarding Solomon, see Figuier, L'Alchimie et les +Alchimistes, pp. 106, 107. For careful appreciation of Becher's position +in the history of chemistry, see Kopp, Ansichten uber die Aufgabe der +Chemie, etc., von Geber bis Stahl, Braunschweig, 1875, pp. 201 et seq. +For the text proving the existence of the philosopher's stone from the +book of Revelation, see Figuier, p. 22. +</pre> + <p> + Of the general reasoning enforced by theology regarding physical science, + every age has shown examples; yet out of them all I will select but two, + and these are given because they show how this mixture of theological with + scientific ideas took hold upon the strongest supporters of better + reasoning even after the power of medieval theology seemed broken. + </p> + <p> + The first of these examples is Melanchthon. He was the scholar of the + Reformation, and justly won the title "Preceptor of Germany." His mind was + singularly open, his sympathies broad, and his usual freedom from bigotry + drew down upon him that wrath of Protestant heresy-hunters which + embittered the last years of his life and tortured him upon his deathbed. + During his career at the University of Wittenberg he gave a course of + lectures on physics, and in these he dwelt upon scriptural texts as + affording scientific proofs, accepted the interference of the devil in + physical phenomena as in other things, and applied the medieval method + throughout his whole work.(278) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (278) For Melanchthon's ideas on physics, see his Initia Doctrinae +Physicae, Wittenberg, 1557, especially pp. 243 and 274; also in vol. +xiii of Bretschneider's edition of the collected works, and especially +pp. 339-343. +</pre> + <p> + Yet far more remarkable was the example, a century later, of the man who + more than any other led the world out of the path opened by Aquinas, and + into that through which modern thought has advanced to its greatest + conquests. Strange as it may at first seem, Francis Bacon, whose keenness + of sight revealed the delusions of the old path and the promises of the + new, and whose boldness did so much to turn the world from the old path + into the new, presents in his own writings one of the most striking + examples of the evil he did so much to destroy. + </p> + <p> + The Novum Organon, considering the time when it came from his pen, is + doubtless one of the greatest exhibitions of genius in the history of + human thought. It showed the modern world the way out of the scholastic + method and reverence for dogma into the experimental method and reverence + for fact. In it occur many passages which show that the great philosopher + was fully alive to the danger both to religion and to science arising from + their mixture. He declares that the "corruption of philosophy from + superstition and theology introduced the greatest amount of evil both into + whole systems of philosophy and into their parts." He denounces those who + "have endeavoured to found a natural philosophy on the books of Genesis + and Job and other sacred Scriptures, so 'seeking the dead among the + living.'" He speaks of the result as "an unwholesome mixture of things + human and divine; not merely fantastic philosophy, but heretical + religion." + </p> + <p> + He refers to the opposition of the fathers to the doctrine of the + rotundity of the earth, and says that, "thanks to some of them, you may + find the approach to any kind of philosophy, however improved, entirely + closed up." He charges that some of these divines are "afraid lest perhaps + a deeper inquiry into nature should, penetrate beyond the allowed limits + of sobriety"; and finally speaks of theologians as sometimes craftily + conjecturing that, if science be little understood, "each single thing can + be referred more easily to the hand and rod of God," and says, "THIS IS + NOTHING MORE OR LESS THAN WISHING TO PLEASE GOD BY A LIE." + </p> + <p> + No man who has reflected much upon the annals of his race can, without a + feeling of awe, come into the presence of such clearness of insight and + boldness of utterance, and the first thought of the reader is that, of all + men, Francis Bacon is the most free from the unfortunate bias he condemns; + that he, certainly, can not be deluded into the old path. But as we go on + through his main work we are surprised to find that the strong arm of + Aquinas has been stretched over the intervening ages, and has laid hold + upon this master-thinker of the seventeenth century; for only a few + chapters beyond those containing the citations already made we find Bacon + alluding to the recent voyage of Columbus, and speaking of the prophecy of + Daniel regarding the latter days, that "many shall run to and fro, and + knowledge be increased," as clearly signifying "that... the + circumnavigation of the world and the increase of science should happen in + the same age."(279) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (279) See the Novum Organon, translated by the Rev. G. W. Kitchin, +Oxford, 1855, chaps. lxv and lxxxix. +</pre> + <p> + In his great work on the Advancement of Learning the firm grasp which the + methods he condemned held upon him is shown yet more clearly. In the first + book of it he asserts that "that excellent book of Job, if it be revolved + with diligence, will be found pregnant and swelling with natural + philosophy," and he endeavours to show that in it the "roundness of the + earth," the "fixing of the stars, ever standing at equal distances," the + "depression of the southern pole," the "matter of generation," and "matter + of minerals" are "with great elegancy noted." But, curiously enough, he + uses to support some of these truths the very texts which the fathers of + the Church used to destroy them, and those for which he finds Scripture + warrant most clearly are such as science has since disproved. So, too, he + says that Solomon was enabled in his Proverbs, "by donation of God, to + compile a natural history of all verdure."(280) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (280) See Bacon, Advancement of Learning, edited by W. Aldis Wright, +London, 1873, pp. 47, 48. Certainly no more striking examples of the +strength of the evil which he had all along been denouncing could be +exhibited that these in his own writings. Nothing better illustrates the +sway of the mediaeval theology, or better explains his blindness to the +discoveries of Copernicus and to the experiments of Gilbert. For a +very contemptuous statement of Lord Bacon's claim to his position as +a philosopher, see Lange, Geschichte des Materialismus, Leipsic, 1872, +vol i, p. 219. For a more just statement, see Brewster, Life of Sir +Isaac Newton, London, 1874, vol. ii, p. 298. +</pre> + <p> + Such was the struggle of the physical sciences in general. Let us now look + briefly at one special example out of many, which reveals, as well as any, + one of the main theories which prompted theological interference with + them. + </p> + <p> + It will doubtless seem amazing to many that for ages the weight of + theological thought in Christendom was thrown against the idea of the + suffocating properties of certain gases, and especially of carbonic acid. + Although in antiquity we see men forming a right theory of gases in mines, + we find that, early in the history of the Church, St. Clement of + Alexandria put forth the theory that these gases are manifestations of + diabolic action, and that, throughout Christendom, suffocation in caverns, + wells, and cellars was attributed to the direct action of evil spirits. + Evidences of this view abound through the medieval period, and during the + Reformation period a great authority, Agricola, one of the most earnest + and truthful of investigators, still adhered to the belief that these + gases in mines were manifestations of devils, and he specified two classes—one + of malignant imps, who blow out the miners' lamps, and the other of + friendly imps, who simply tease the workmen in various ways. He went so + far as to say that one of these spirits in the Saxon mine of Annaberg + destroyed twelve workmen at once by the power of his breath. + </p> + <p> + At the end of the sixteenth century we find a writer on mineralogy + complaining that the mines in France and Germany had been in large part + abandoned on account of the "evil spirits of metals which had taken + possession of them." + </p> + <p> + Even as late as the seventeenth century, Van Helmont, after he had broken + away from alchemy and opened one of the great paths to chemistry—even + after he had announced to the world the existence of various gases and the + mode of their generation—was not strong enough to free himself from + theologic bias; he still inclined to believe that the gases he had + discovered, were in some sense living spirits, beneficent or diabolical. + </p> + <p> + But at various. periods glimpses of the truth had been gained. The ancient + view had not been entirely forgotten; and as far back as the first part of + the thirteenth century Albert the Great suggested a natural cause in the + possibility of exhalations from minerals causing a "corruption of the + air"; but he, as we have seen, was driven or dragged off into, theological + studies, and the world relapsed into the theological view. + </p> + <p> + Toward the end of the fifteenth century there had come a great genius + laden with important truths in chemistry, but for whom the world was not + ready—Basil Valentine. His discoveries anticipated much that has + brought fame and fortune to chemists since, yet so fearful of danger was + he that his work was carefully concealed. Not until after his death was + his treatise on alchemy found, and even then it was for a long time not + known where and when he lived. The papal bull, Spondent pariter, and the + various prohibitions it bred, forcing other alchemists to conceal their + laboratories, led him to let himself be known during his life at Erfurt + simply as an apothecary, and to wait until after his death to make a + revelation of truth which during his lifetime might have cost him dear. + Among the legacies of this greatest of the alchemists was the doctrine + that the air which asphyxiates workers in mines is similar to that which + is produced by fermentation of malt, and a recommendation that, in order + to drive away the evil and to prevent serious accidents, fires be lighted + and jets of steam used to ventilate the mines—stress being + especially laid upon the idea that the danger in the mines is produced by + "exhalations of metals." + </p> + <p> + Thanks to men like Valentine, this idea of the interference of Satan and + his minions with the mining industry was gradually weakened, and the + working of the deserted mines was resumed; yet even at a comparatively + recent period we find it still lingering, and among leading divines in the + very heart of Protestant Germany. In 1715 a cellar-digger having been + stifled at Jena, the medical faculty of the university decided that the + cause was not the direct action of the devil, but a deadly gas. Thereupon + Prof. Loescher, of the University of Wittenberg, entered a solemn protest, + declaring that the decision of the medical faculty was "only a proof of + the lamentable license which has so taken possession of us, and which, if + we are not earnestly on our guard, will finally turn away from us the + blessing of God."(281) But denunciations of this kind could not hold back + the little army of science; in spite of adverse influences, the evolution + of physics and chemistry went on. More and more there rose men bold enough + to break away from theological methods and strong enough to resist + ecclesiastical bribes and threats. As alchemy in its first form, seeking + for the philosopher's stone and the transmutation of metals, had given way + to alchemy in its second form, seeking for the elixir of life and remedies + more or less magical for disease, so now the latter yielded to the search + for truth as truth. More and more the "solemnly constituted impostors" + were resisted in every field. A great line of physicists and chemists + began to appear.(282) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (281) For Loescher's protest, see Julian Schmidt, Geschichte des +geistigen Lebens, etc., vol. i, p. 319. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (282) For the general view of noxious gases as imps of Satan, see +Hoefer, Histoire de la Chimie, vol. i, p. 350; vol. ii, p. 48. For the +work of Black, Priestley, Bergmann, and others, see main authorities +already cited, and especially the admirable paper of Dr. R. G. Eccles on +The Evolution of Chemistry, New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1891. For the +treatment of Priesley, see Spence's Essays, London, 1892; also Rutt, +Life and Correspondence of Priestley, vol. ii, pp. 115 et seq. +</pre> + <p> + II. + </p> + <p> + Just at the middle of the seventeenth century, and at the very centre of + opposition to physical science, Robert Boyle began the new epoch in + chemistry. Strongly influenced by the writings of Bacon and the + discoveries of Galileo, he devoted himself to scientific research, + establishing at Oxford a laboratory and putting into it a chemist from + Strasburg. For this he was at once bitterly attacked. In spite of his high + position, his blameless life, his liberal gifts to charity and learning, + the Oxford pulpit was especially severe against him, declaring that his + researches were destroying religion and his experiments undermining the + university. Public orators denounced him, the wits ridiculed him, and his + associates in the peerage were indignant that he should condescend to + pursuits so unworthy. But Boyle pressed on. His discoveries opened new + paths in various directions and gave an impulse to a succession of + vigorous investigators. Thus began the long series of discoveries + culminating those of Black, Bergmann, Cavendish, Priestley, and Lavoisier, + who ushered in the chemical science of the nineteenth century. + </p> + <p> + Yet not even then without a sore struggle against unreason. And it must + here be noticed that this unreason was not all theological. The + unreasoning heterodox when intrusted with irresponsible power can be as + short-sighted and cruel as the unreasoning orthodox. Lavoisier, one of the + best of our race, not only a great chemist but a true man, was sent to the + scaffold by the Parisian mob, led by bigoted "liberals" and atheists, with + the sneer that the republic had no need of savants. As to Priestley, who + had devoted his life to science and to every good work among his + fellow-men, the Birmingham mob, favoured by the Anglican clergymen who + harangued them as "fellow-churchmen," wrecked his house, destroyed his + library, philosophical instruments, and papers containing the results of + long years of scientific research, drove him into exile, and would have + murdered him if they could have laid their hands upon him. Nor was it + entirely his devotion to rational liberty, nor even his disbelief in the + doctrine of the Trinity, which brought on this catastrophe. That there was + a deep distrust of his scientific pursuits, was evident when the leaders + of the mob took pains to use his electrical apparatus to set fire to his + papers. + </p> + <p> + Still, though theological modes of thought continued to sterilize much + effort in chemistry, the old influence was more and more thrown off, and + truth sought more and more for truth's sake. "Black magic" with its + Satanic machinery vanished, only reappearing occasionally among + marvel-mongers and belated theologians. "White magic" became legerdemain. + </p> + <p> + In the early years of the nineteenth century, physical research, though it + went on with ever-increasing vigour, felt in various ways the reaction + which followed the French Revolution. It was not merely under the Bourbons + and Hapsburgs that resistance was offered; even in England the old spirit + lingered long. As late as 1832, when the British Association for the + Advancement of Science first visited Oxford, no less amiable a man than + John Keble—at that time a power in the university—condemned + indignantly the conferring of honorary degrees upon the leading men thus + brought together. In a letter of that date to Dr. Pusey he complained + bitterly, to use his own words, that "the Oxford doctors have truckled + sadly to the spirit of the times in receiving the hotchpotch of + philosophers as they did." It is interesting to know that among the men + thus contemptuously characterized were Brewster, Faraday, and Dalton. + </p> + <p> + Nor was this a mere isolated exhibition of feeling; it lasted many years, + and was especially shown on both sides of the Atlantic in all higher + institutions of learning where theology was dominant. Down to a period + within the memory of men still in active life, students in the sciences, + not only at Oxford and Cambridge but at Harvard and Yale, were considered + a doubtful if not a distinctly inferior class, intellectually and socially—to + be relegated to different instructors and buildings, and to receive their + degrees on a different occasion and with different ceremonies from those + appointed for students in literature. To the State University of Michigan, + among the greater American institutions of learning which have never + possessed or been possessed by a theological seminary, belongs the honour + of first breaking down this wall of separation. + </p> + <p> + But from the middle years of the century chemical science progressed with + ever-accelerating force, and the work of Bunsen, Kirchhoff, Dalton, and + Faraday has, in the last years of the century, led up to the establishment + of Mendeleef's law, by which chemistry has become predictive, as astronomy + had become predictive by the calculations of Newton, and biology by the + discoveries of Darwin. + </p> + <p> + While one succession of strong men were thus developing chemistry out of + one form of magic, another succession were developing physics out of + another form. + </p> + <p> + First in this latter succession may be mentioned that line of thinkers who + divined and reasoned out great physical laws—a line extending from + Galileo and Kepler and Newton to Ohm and Faraday and Joule and Helmholtz. + These, by revealing more and more clearly the reign of law, steadily + undermined the older theological view of arbitrary influence in nature. + Next should be mentioned the line of profound observers, from Galileo and + Torricelli to Kelvin. These have as thoroughly undermined the old + theologic substitution of phrases for facts. When Galileo dropped the + differing weights from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, he began the end of + Aristotelian authority in physics. When Torricelli balanced a column of + mercury against a column of water and each of these against a column of + air, he ended the theologic phrase that "nature abhors a vacuum." When + Newton approximately determined the velocity of sound, he ended the + theologic argument that we see the flash before we hear the roar because + "sight is nobler than hearing." When Franklin showed that lightning is + caused by electricity, and Ohm and Faraday proved that electricity obeys + ascertained laws, they ended the theological idea of a divinity seated + above the clouds and casting thunderbolts. + </p> + <p> + Resulting from the labour of both these branches of physical science, we + have the establishment of the great laws of the indestructibility of + matter, the correlation of forces, and chemical affinity. Thereby is + ended, with various other sacred traditions, the theological theory of a + visible universe created out of nothing, so firmly imbedded in the + theological thought of the Middle Ages and in the Westminster + Catechism.(283) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (283) For a reappearance of the fundamental doctrines of black magic +among theologians, see Rev. Dr. Jewett, Professor of Pastoral Theology +in the Prot. Episc. Gen. Theolog. Seminary of New York, Diabolology: The +Person and the Kingdom of Satan, New York, 1889. For their appearance +among theosophists, see Eliphas Levi, Histoire de la Magie, especially +the final chapters. For opposition to Boyle and chemistry studies at +Oxford in the latter half of the seventeenth century, see the address +of Prof. Dixon, F. R. S., before the British Association, 1894. For the +recent progress of chemistry, and opposition to its earlier development +at Oxford, see Lord Salisbury's address as President of the British +Association, in 1894. For the Protestant survival of the mediaeval +assertion that the universe was created out of nothing, see the +Westminster Catechism, question 15. +</pre> + <p> + In our own time some attempt has been made to renew this war against the + physical sciences. Joseph de Maistre, uttering his hatred of them, + declaring that mankind has paid too dearly for them, asserting that they + must be subjected to theology, likening them to fire—good when + confined and dangerous when scattered about—has been one of the main + leaders among those who can not relinquish the idea that our body of + sacred literature should be kept a controlling text-book of science. The + only effect of such teachings has been to weaken the legitimate hold of + religion upon men. + </p> + <p> + In Catholic countries exertion has of late years been mainly confined to + excluding science or diluting it in university teachings. Early in the + present century a great effort was made by Ferdinand VII of Spain. He + simply dismissed the scientific professors from the University of + Salamanca, and until a recent period there has been general exclusion from + Spanish universities of professors holding to the Newtonian physics. So, + too, the contemporary Emperor of Austria attempted indirectly something of + the same sort; and at a still later period Popes Gregory XVI and Pius IX + discouraged, if they did not forbid, the meetings of scientific + associations in Italy. In France, war between theology and science, which + had long been smouldering, came in the years 1867 and 1868 to an outbreak. + Toward the end of the last century, after the Church had held possession + of advanced instruction for more than a thousand years, and had, so far as + it was able, kept experimental science in servitude—after it had + humiliated Buffon in natural science, thrown its weight against Newton in + the physical sciences, and wrecked Turgot's noble plans for a system of + public instruction—the French nation decreed the establishment of + the most thorough and complete system of higher instruction in science + ever known. It was kept under lay control and became one of the glories of + France; but, emboldened by the restoration of the Bourbons in 1815, the + Church began to undermine this hated system, and in 1868 had made such + progress that all was ready for the final assault. + </p> + <p> + Foremost among the leaders of the besieging party was the Bishop of + Orleans, Dupanloup, a man of many winning characteristics and of great + oratorical power. In various ways, and especially in an open letter, he + had fought the "materialism" of science at Paris, and especially were his + attacks levelled at Profs. Vulpian and See and the Minister of Public + instruction, Duruy, a man of great merit, whose only crime was devotion to + the improvement of education and to the promotion of the highest research + in science.(284) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (284) For the exertions of the restored Bourbons to crush the +universities of Spain, see Hubbard, Hist. Contemporaine de l'Espagne, +Paris, 1878, chaps. i and ii. For Dupanloup, Lettre a un Cardinal, see +the Revue de Therapeutique of 1868, p. 221. +</pre> + <p> + The main attack was made rather upon biological science than upon physics + and chemistry, yet it was clear that all were involved together. + </p> + <p> + The first onslaught was made in the French Senate, and the storming party + in that body was led by a venerable and conscientious prelate, Cardinal de + Bonnechose, Archbishop of Rouen. It was charged by him and his party that + the tendencies of the higher scientific teaching at Paris were fatal to + religion and morality. Heavy missiles were hurled—such phrases as + "sapping the foundations," "breaking down the bulwarks," and the like; + and, withal, a new missile was used with much effect—the epithet + "materialist." + </p> + <p> + The results can be easily guessed: crowds came to the lecture-rooms of the + attacked professors, and the lecture-room of Prof. See, the chief + offender, was crowded to suffocation. + </p> + <p> + A siege was begun in due form. A young physician was sent by the + cardinal's party into the heterodox camp as a spy. Having heard one + lecture of Prof. See, he returned with information that seemed to promise + easy victory to the besieging party: he brought a terrible statement—one + that seemed enough to overwhelm See, Vulpian, Duruy, and the whole hated + system of public instruction in France—the statement that See had + denied the existence of the human soul. + </p> + <p> + Cardinal Bonnechose seized the tremendous weapon at once. Rising in his + place in the Senate, he launched a most eloquent invective against the + Minister of State who could protect such a fortress of impiety as the + College of Medicine; and, as a climax, he asserted, on the evidence of his + spy fresh from Prof. See's lecture-room, that the professor had declared, + in his lecture of the day before, that so long as he had the honour to + hold his professorship he would combat the false idea of the existence of + the soul. The weapon seemed resistless and the wound fatal, but M. Duruy + rose and asked to be heard. + </p> + <p> + His statement was simply that he held in his hand documentary proofs that + Prof. See never made such a declaration. He held the notes used by Prof. + See in his lecture. Prof. See, it appeared, belonged to a school in + medical science which combated certain ideas regarding medicine as an ART. + The inflamed imagination of the cardinal's heresy-hunting emissary had, as + the lecture-notes proved, led him to mistake the word "art" for "ame," and + to exhibit Prof. See as treating a theological when he was discussing a + purely scientific question. Of the existence of the soul the professor had + said nothing. + </p> + <p> + The forces of the enemy were immediately turned; they retreated in + confusion, amid the laughter of all France; and a quiet, dignified + statement as to the rights of scientific instructors by Wurtz, dean of the + faculty, completed their discomfiture. Thus a well-meant attempt to check + science simply ended in bringing ridicule on religion, and in thrusting + still deeper into the minds of thousands of men that most mistaken of all + mistaken ideas: the conviction that religion and science are enemies.(285) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (285) For a general account of the Vulpian and See matter, see Revue des +Deux Mondes, 31 mai, 1868, "Chronique de la Quinzaine," pp. 763-765. As +to the result on popular thought, may be noted the following comment on +the affair by the Revue, which is as free as possible from anything +like rabid anti-ecclesiastical ideas: "Elle a ete vraiment curieuse, +instructive, assez triste et meme un peu amusante." For Wurtz's +statement, see Revue de Therapeutique for 1868, p. 303. +</pre> + <p> + But justice forbids raising an outcry against Roman Catholicism for this. + In 1864 a number of excellent men in England drew up a declaration to be + signed by students in the natural sciences, expressing "sincere regret + that researches into scientific truth are perverted by some in our time + into occasion for casting doubt upon the truth and authenticity of the + Holy Scriptures." Nine tenths of the leading scientific men of England + refused to sign it; nor was this all: Sir John Herschel, Sir John Bowring, + and Sir W. R. Hamilton administered, through the press, castigations which + roused general indignation against the proposers of the circular, and + Prof. De Morgan, by a parody, covered memorial and memorialists with + ridicule. It was the old mistake, and the old result followed in the minds + of multitudes of thoughtful young men.(286) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (286) De Morgan, Paradoxes, pp. 421-428; also Daubeny's Essays. +</pre> + <p> + And in yet another Protestant country this same mistake was made. In 1868 + several excellent churchmen in Prussia thought it their duty to meet for + the denunciation of "science falsely so called." Two results followed: + upon the great majority of these really self-sacrificing men—whose + first utterances showed complete ignorance of the theories they attacked—there + came quiet and widespread contempt; upon Pastor Knak, who stood forth and + proclaimed views of the universe which he thought scriptural, but which + most schoolboys knew to be childish, came a burst of good-natured derision + from every quarter of the German nation.(287) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (287) See the Berlin newspapers for the summer of 1868, especially +Kladderdatsch. +</pre> + <p> + But in all the greater modern nations warfare of this kind, after the + first quarter of the nineteenth century, became more and more futile. + While conscientious Roman bishops, and no less conscientious Protestant + clergymen in Europe and America continued to insist that advanced + education, not only in literature but in science, should be kept under + careful control in their own sectarian universities and colleges, + wretchedly one-sided in organization and inadequate in equipment; while + Catholic clerical authorities in Spain were rejecting all professors + holding the Newtonian theory, and in Austria and Italy all holding unsafe + views regarding the Immaculate Conception, and while Protestant clerical + authorities in Great Britain and America were keeping out of + professorships men holding unsatisfactory views regarding the Incarnation, + or Infant Baptism, or the Apostolic Succession, or Ordination by Elders, + or the Perseverance of the Saints; and while both Catholic and Protestant + ecclesiastics were openly or secretly weeding out of university faculties + all who showed willingness to consider fairly the ideas of Darwin, a + movement was quietly in progress destined to take instruction, and + especially instruction in the physical and natural sciences, out of its + old subordination to theology and ecclesiasticism.(288) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (288) Whatever may be thought of the system of philosophy advocated by +President McCosh at Princeton, every thinking man must honor him for the +large way in which he, at least, broke away from the traditions of that +centre of thought; prevented, so far as he was able, persecution of +scholars for holding to the Darwinian view; and paved the way for the +highest researches in physical science in that university. For a most +eloquent statement of the opposition of modern physical science to +mediaeval theological views, as shown in the case of Sir Isaac Newton, +see Dr. Thomas Chalmers, cited in Gore, Art of Scientific Discovery, +London, 1878, p. 247. +</pre> + <p> + The most striking beginnings of this movement had been seen when, in the + darkest period of the French Revolution, there was founded at Paris the + great Conservatory of Arts and Trades, and when, in the early years of the + nineteenth century, scientific and technical education spread quietly upon + the Continent. By the middle of the century France and Germany were dotted + with well-equipped technical and scientific schools, each having chemical + and physical laboratories. + </p> + <p> + The English-speaking lands lagged behind. In England, Oxford and Cambridge + showed few if any signs of this movement, and in the United States, down + to 1850, evidences of it were few and feeble. Very significant is it that, + at that period, while Yale College had in its faculty Silliman and Olmsted—the + professor of chemistry and the professor of physics most widely known in + the United States—it had no physical or chemical laboratory in the + modern sense, and confined its instruction in these subjects to + examinations upon a text-book and the presentation of a few lectures. At + the State University of Michigan, which had even then taken a foremost + place in the higher education west of the Great Lakes, there was very + meagre instruction in chemistry and virtually none in physics. This being + the state of things in the middle of the century in institutions + remarkably free from clerical control, it can be imagined what was the + position of scientific instruction in smaller colleges and universities + where theological considerations were entirely dominant. + </p> + <p> + But in 1851, with the International Exhibition at London, began in Great + Britain and America a movement in favour of scientific education; men of + wealth and public spirit began making contributions to them, and thus came + the growth of a new system of instruction in which Chemistry and Physics + took just rank. + </p> + <p> + By far the most marked feature in this movement was seen in America, when, + in 1857, Justin S. Morrill, a young member of Congress from Vermont, + presented the project of a law endowing from the public lands a broad + national system of colleges in which scientific and technical studies + should be placed on an equality with studies in classical literature, one + such college to be established in every State of the Union. The bill, + though opposed mainly by representatives from the Southern States, where + doctrinaire politics and orthodox theology were in strong alliance with + negro slavery, was passed by both Houses of Congress, but vetoed by + President Buchanan, in whom the doctrinaire and orthodox spirit was + incarnate. But Morrill persisted and again presented his bill, which was + again carried in spite of the opposition of the Southern members, and + again vetoed in 1859 by President Buchanan. Then came the civil war; but + Morrill and his associates did not despair of the republic. In the midst + of all the measures for putting vast armies into the field and for saving + the Union from foreign interference as well as from domestic anarchy, they + again passed the bill, and in 1862, in the darkest hour of the struggle + for national existence, it became a law by the signature of President + Lincoln. + </p> + <p> + And here it should not be unrecorded, that, while the vast majority of the + supporters of the measure were laymen, most efficient service was rendered + by a clergyman, the Rev. Dr. Amos Brown, born in New Hampshire, but at + that time an instructor in a little village of New York. His ideas were + embodied in the bill, and his efforts did much for its passage. + </p> + <p> + Thus was established, in every State of the American Union, at least one + institution in which scientific and technical studies were given equal + rank with classical, and promoted by laboratories for research in physical + and natural science. Of these institutions there are now nearly fifty: all + have proved valuable, and some of them, by the addition of splendid gifts + from individuals and from the States in which they are situated, have been + developed into great universities. + </p> + <p> + Nor was this all. Many of the older universities and colleges thus + received a powerful stimulus in the new direction. The great physical and + chemical laboratories founded by gifts from public-spirited individuals, + as at Harvard, Yale, and Chicago, or by enlightened State legislators, as + in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, Kansas, and Nebraska, have + also become centres from which radiate influences favouring the unfettered + search for truth as truth. + </p> + <p> + This system has been long enough in operation to enable us to note in some + degree its effects on religion, and these are certainly such as to relieve + those who have feared that religion was necessarily bound up with the + older instruction controlled by theology. While in Europe, by a natural + reaction, the colleges under strict ecclesiastical control have sent forth + the most powerful foes the Christian Church has ever known, of whom + Voltaire and Diderot and Volney and Sainte-Beuve and Renan are types, no + such effects have been noted in these newer institutions. While the + theological way of looking at the universe has steadily yielded, there has + been no sign of any tendency toward irreligion. On the contrary, it is the + testimony of those best acquainted with the American colleges and + universities during the last forty-five years that there has been in them + a great gain, not only as regards morals, but as regards religion in its + highest and best sense. The reason is not far to seek. Under the old + American system the whole body of students at a university were confined + to a single course, for which the majority cared little and very many + cared nothing, and, as a result, widespread idleness and dissipation were + inevitable. Under the new system, presenting various courses, and + especially courses in various sciences, appealing to different tastes and + aims, the great majority of students are interested, and consequently + indolence and dissipation have steadily diminished. Moreover, in the + majority of American institutions of learning down to the middle of the + century, the main reliance for the religious culture of students was in + the perfunctory presentation of sectarian theology, and the occasional + stirring up of what were called "revivals," which, after a period of + unhealthy stimulus, inevitably left the main body of students in a state + of religious and moral reaction and collapse. This method is now + discredited, and in the more important American universities it has become + impossible. Religious truth, to secure the attention of the modern race of + students in the better American institutions, is presented, not by + "sensation preachers," but by thoughtful, sober-minded scholars. Less and + less avail sectarian arguments; more and more impressive becomes the + presentation of fundamental religious truths. The result is, that while + young men care less and less for the great mass of petty, cut-and-dried + sectarian formulas, they approach the deeper questions of religion with + increasing reverence. + </p> + <p> + While striking differences exist between the European universities and + those of the United States, this at least may be said, that on both sides + of the Atlantic the great majority of the leading institutions of learning + are under the sway of enlightened public opinion as voiced mainly by + laymen, and that, this being the case, the physical and natural sciences + are henceforth likely to be developed normally, and without fear of being + sterilized by theology or oppressed by ecclesiasticism. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIII. FROM MIRACLES TO MEDICINE. + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0045" id="link2H_4_0045"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I. THE EARLY AND SACRED THEORIES OF DISEASE. + </h2> + <p> + Nothing in the evolution of human thought appears more inevitable than the + idea of supernatural intervention in producing and curing disease. The + causes of disease are so intricate that they are reached only after ages + of scientific labour. In those periods when man sees everywhere miracle + and nowhere law,—when he attributes all things which he can not + understand to a will like his own,—he naturally ascribes his + diseases either to the wrath of a good being or to the malice of an evil + being. + </p> + <p> + This idea underlies the connection of the priestly class with the healing + art: a connection of which we have survivals among rude tribes in all + parts of the world, and which is seen in nearly every ancient civilization—especially + in the powers over disease claimed in Egypt by the priests of Osiris and + Isis, in Assyria by the priests of Gibil, in Greece by the priests of + Aesculapius, and in Judea by the priests and prophets of Jahveh. + </p> + <p> + In Egypt there is evidence, reaching back to a very early period, that the + sick were often regarded as afflicted or possessed by demons; the same + belief comes constantly before us in the great religions of India and + China; and, as regards Chaldea, the Assyrian tablets recovered in recent + years, while revealing the source of so many myths and legends transmitted + to the modern world through the book of Genesis, show especially this idea + of the healing of diseases by the casting out of devils. A similar theory + was elaborated in Persia. Naturally, then, the Old Testament, so precious + in showing the evolution of religious and moral truth among men, + attributes such diseases as the leprosy of Miriam and Uzziah, the boils of + Job, the dysentery of Jehoram, the withered hand of Jeroboam, the fatal + illness of Asa, and many other ills, to the wrath of God or the malice of + Satan; while, in the New Testament, such examples as the woman "bound by + Satan," the rebuke of the fever, the casting out of the devil which was + dumb, the healing of the person whom "the devil ofttimes casteth into the + fire"—of which case one of the greatest modern physicians remarks + that never was there a truer description of epilepsy—and various + other episodes, show this same inevitable mode of thought as a refracting + medium through which the teachings and doings of the Great Physician were + revealed to future generations. + </p> + <p> + In Greece, though this idea of an occult evil agency in producing bodily + ills appeared at an early period, there also came the first beginnings, so + far as we know, of a really scientific theory of medicine. Five hundred + years before Christ, in the bloom period of thought—the period of + Aeschylus, Phidias, Pericles, Socrates, and Plato—appeared + Hippocrates, one of the greatest names in history. Quietly but thoroughly + he broke away from the old tradition, developed scientific thought, and + laid the foundations of medical science upon experience, observation, and + reason so deeply and broadly that his teaching remains to this hour among + the most precious possessions of our race. + </p> + <p> + His thought was passed on to the School of Alexandria, and there medical + science was developed yet further, especially by such men as Herophilus + and Erasistratus. Under their lead studies in human anatomy began by + dissection; the old prejudice which had weighed so long upon science, + preventing that method of anatomical investigation without which there can + be no real results, was cast aside apparently forever.(289) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (289) For extended statements regarding medicine in Egypt, Judea, and +Eastern nations generally, see Sprengel, Histoire de la Medecine, and +Haeser; and for more succinct accounts, Baas, Geschichte der Medicin, +pp. 15-29; also Isensee; also Fredault, Histoire de la Medecine, chap. +i. For the effort in Egyptian medicine to deal with demons and witches, +see Heinrich Brugsch, Die Aegyptologie, Leipsic, 1891, p. 77; and for +references to the Papyrus Ebers, etc., pp. 155, 407, and following. For +fear of dissection and prejudices against it in Egypt, like those in +mediaeval Europe, see Maspero and Sayce, Dawn of Civilization, p. 216. +For the derivation of priestly medicine in Egypt, see Baas, pp. 16, 22. +For the fame of Egyptian medicine at Rome, see Sharpe, History of Egypt, +vol. ii, pp. 151, 184. For Assyria, see especially George Smith in +Delitzsch's German translation, p. 34, and F. Delitzsch's appendix, p. +27. On the cheapness and commonness of miracles of healing in antiquity, +see Sharpe, quoting St. Jerome, vol. ii, pp. 276, 277. As to the +influence of Chaldean ideas of magic and disease, see Lecky, History of +European Morals, vol. i, p. 404 and note. But, on the other hand, see +reference in Homer to diseases caused by a "demon." For the evolution of +medicine before and after Hippocrates, see Sprengel. For a good summing +up of the work of Hippocrates, see Baas, p. 201. For the necessary +passage of medicine in its early stages under priestly control, see +Cabanis, The Revolution of Medical Science, London, 1806, chap. ii. On +Jewish ideas regarding demons, and their relation to sickness, see Toy, +Judaism and Christianity, Boston, 1891, pp. 168 et seq. For avoidance +of dissections of human subjects even by Galen and his disciples, see +Maurice Albert, Les Medecins Grecs a Rome, Paris, 1894, chap. xi. For +Herophilus, Erasistratus, and the School of Alexandria, see Sprengel, +vol. i, pp. 433, 434 et seq. +</pre> + <p> + But with the coming in of Christianity a great new chain of events was set + in motion which modified this development most profoundly. The influence + of Christianity on the healing art was twofold: there was first a blessed + impulse—the thought, aspiration, example, ideals, and spirit of + Jesus of Nazareth. This spirit, then poured into the world, flowed down + through the ages, promoting self-sacrifice for the sick and wretched. + Through all those succeeding centuries, even through the rudest, hospitals + and infirmaries sprang up along this blessed stream. Of these were the + Eastern establishments for the cure of the sick at the earliest Christian + periods, the Infirmary of Monte Cassino and the Hotel-Dieu at Lyons in the + sixth century, the Hotel-Dieu at Paris in the seventh, and the myriad + refuges for the sick and suffering which sprang up in every part of Europe + during the following centuries. Vitalized by this stream, all medieval + growths of mercy bloomed luxuriantly. To say nothing of those at an + earlier period, we have in the time of the Crusades great charitable + organizations like the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, and thenceforward + every means of bringing the spirit of Jesus to help afflicted humanity. + So, too, through all those ages we have a succession of men and women + devoting themselves to works of mercy, culminating during modern times in + saints like Vincent de Paul, Francke, Howard, Elizabeth Fry, Florence + Nightingale, and Muhlenberg. + </p> + <p> + But while this vast influence, poured forth from the heart of the Founder + of Christianity, streamed through century after century, inspiring every + development of mercy, there came from those who organized the Church which + bears his name, and from those who afterward developed and directed it, + another stream of influence—a theology drawn partly from prehistoric + conceptions of unseen powers, partly from ideas developed in the earliest + historic nations, but especially from the letter of the Hebrew and + Christian sacred books. + </p> + <p> + The theology deveLoped out of our sacred literature in relation to the + cure of disease was mainly twofold: first, there was a new and strong + evolution of the old idea that physical disease is produced by the wrath + of God or the malice of Satan, or by a combination of both, which theology + was especially called in to explain; secondly, there were evolved theories + of miraculous methods of cure, based upon modes of appeasing the Divine + anger, or of thwarting Satanic malice. + </p> + <p> + Along both these streams of influence, one arising in the life of Jesus, + and the other in the reasonings of theologians, legends of miracles grew + luxuriantly. It would be utterly unphilosophical to attribute these as a + whole to conscious fraud. Whatever part priestcraft may have taken + afterward in sundry discreditable developments of them, the mass of + miraculous legends, Century after century, grew up mainly in good faith, + and as naturally as elms along water-courses or flowers upon the prairie. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0046" id="link2H_4_0046"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II. GROWTH OF LEGENDS OF HEALING. + </h2> + <h3> + —THE LIFE OF XAVIER AS A TYPICAL EXAMPLE. + </h3> + <p> + Legends of miracles have thus grown about the lives of all great + benefactors of humanity in early ages, and about saints and devotees. + Throughout human history the lives of such personages, almost without + exception, have been accompanied or followed by a literature in which + legends of miraculous powers form a very important part—a part + constantly increasing until a different mode of looking at nature and of + weighing testimony causes miracles to disappear. While modern thought + holds the testimony to the vast mass of such legends in all ages as + worthless, it is very widely acknowledged that great and gifted beings who + endow the earth with higher religious ideas, gaining the deepest hold upon + the hearts and minds of multitudes, may at times exercise such influence + upon those about them that the sick in mind or body are helped or healed. + </p> + <p> + We have within the modern period very many examples which enable us to + study the evolution of legendary miracles. Out of these I will select but + one, which is chosen because it is the life of one of the most noble and + devoted men in the history of humanity, one whose biography is before the + world with its most minute details—in his own letters, in the + letters of his associates, in contemporary histories, and in a multitude + of biographies: this man is St. Francis Xavier. From these sources I draw + the facts now to be given, but none of them are of Protestant origin; + every source from which I shall draw is Catholic and Roman, and published + under the sanction of the Church. + </p> + <p> + Born a Spanish noble, Xavier at an early age cast aside all ordinary aims, + devoted himself to study, was rapidly advanced to a professorship at + Paris, and in this position was rapidly winning a commanding influence, + when he came under the sway of another Spaniard even greater, though less + brilliantly endowed, than himself—Ignatius Loyola, founder of the + Society of Jesus. The result was that the young professor sacrificed the + brilliant career on which he had entered at the French capital, went to + the far East as a simple missionary, and there devoted his remaining years + to redeeming the lowest and most wretched of our race. + </p> + <p> + Among the various tribes, first in lower India and afterward in Japan, he + wrought untiringly—toiling through village after village, collecting + the natives by the sound of a hand-bell, trying to teach them the simplest + Christian formulas; and thus he brought myriads of them to a nominal + Confession of the Christian faith. After twelve years of such efforts, + seeking new conquests for religion, he sacrificed his life on the desert + island of San Chan. + </p> + <p> + During his career as a missionary he wrote great numbers of letters, which + were preserved and have since been published; and these, with the letters + of his contemporaries, exhibit clearly all the features of his life. His + own writings are very minute, and enable us to follow him fully. No + account of a miracle wrought by him appears either in his own letters or + in any contemporary document.(290) At the outside, but two or three things + occurred in his whole life, as exhibited so fully by himself and his + contemporaries, for which the most earnest devotee could claim anything + like Divine interposition; and these are such as may be read in the + letters of very many fervent missionaries, Protestant as well as Catholic. + For example, in the beginning of his career, during a journey in Europe + with an ambassador, one of the servants in fording a stream got into deep + water and was in danger of drowning. Xavier tells us that the ambassador + prayed very earnestly, and that the man finally struggled out of the + stream. But within sixty years after his death, at his canonization, and + by various biographers, this had been magnified into a miracle, and + appears in the various histories dressed out in glowing colours. Xavier + tells us that the ambassador prayed for the safety of the young man; but + his biographers tell us that it was Xavier who prayed, and finally, by the + later writers, Xavier is represented as lifting horse and rider out of the + stream by a clearly supernatural act. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (290) This statement was denied with much explosive emphasis by a writer +in the Catholic World for September and October, 1891, but he brought +no FACT to support this denial. I may perhaps be allowed to remind the +reverend writer that since the days of Pascal, whose eminence in the +Church he will hardly dispute, the bare assertion even of a Jesuit +father against established facts needs some support other than mere +scurrility. +</pre> + <p> + Still another claim to miracle is based upon his arriving at Lisbon and + finding his great colleague, Simon Rodriguez, ill of fever. Xavier informs + us in a very simple way that Rodriguez was so overjoyed to see him that + the fever did not return. This is entirely similar to the cure which + Martin Luther wrought upon Melanchthon. Melanchthon had broken down and + was supposed to be dying, when his joy at the long-delayed visit of Luther + brought him to his feet again, after which he lived for many years. + </p> + <p> + Again, it is related that Xavier, finding a poor native woman very ill, + baptized her, saying over her the prayers of the Church, and she + recovered. + </p> + <p> + Two or three occurrences like these form the whole basis for the + miraculous account, so far as Xavier's own writings are concerned. + </p> + <p> + Of miracles in the ordinary sense of the word there is in these letters of + his no mention. Though he writes of his doings with especial detail, + taking evident pains to note everything which he thought a sign of Divine + encouragement, he says nothing of his performing miracles, and evidently + knows nothing of them. This is clearly not due to his unwillingness to + make known any token of Divine favour. As we have seen, he is very prompt + to report anything which may be considered an answer to prayer or an + evidence of the power of religious means to improve the bodily or + spiritual health of those to whom he was sent. + </p> + <p> + Nor do the letters of his associates show knowledge of any miracles + wrought by him. His brother missionaries, who were in constant and loyal + fellowship with him, make no allusions to them in their communications + with each other or with their brethren in Europe. + </p> + <p> + Of this fact we have many striking evidences. Various collections of + letters from the Jesuit missionaries in India and the East generally, + during the years of Xavier's activity, were published, and in not one of + these letters written during Xavier's lifetime appears any account of a + miracle wrought by him. As typical of these collections we may take + perhaps the most noted of all, that which was published about twenty years + after Xavier's death by a Jesuit father, Emanuel Acosta. + </p> + <p> + The letters given in it were written by Xavier and his associates not only + from Goa, which was the focus of all missionary effort and the centre of + all knowledge regarding their work in the East, but from all other + important points in the great field. The first of them were written during + the saint's lifetime, but, though filled with every sort of detail + regarding missionary life and work, they say nothing regarding any + miracles by Xavier. + </p> + <p> + The same is true of various other similar collections published during the + sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In not one of them does any mention + of a miracle by Xavier appear in a letter from India or the East + contemporary with him. + </p> + <p> + This silence regarding his miracles was clearly not due to any "evil heart + of unbelief." On the contrary, these good missionary fathers were prompt + to record the slightest occurrence which they thought evidence of the + Divine favour: it is indeed touching to see how eagerly they grasp at the + most trivial things which could be thus construed. + </p> + <p> + Their ample faith was fully shown. One of them, in Acosta's collection, + sends a report that an illuminated cross had been recently seen in the + heavens; another, that devils had been cast out of the natives by the use + of holy water; another, that various cases of disease had been helped and + even healed by baptism; and sundry others sent reports that the blind and + dumb had been restored, and that even lepers had been cleansed by the + proper use of the rites of the Church; but to Xavier no miracles are + imputed by his associates during his life or during several years after + his death. + </p> + <p> + On the contrary, we find his own statements as to his personal + limitations, and the difficulties arising from them, fully confirmed by + his brother workers. It is interesting, for example, in view of the claim + afterward made that the saint was divinely endowed for his mission with + the "gift of tongues," to note in these letters confirmation of Xavier's + own statement utterly disproving the existence of any such Divine gift, + and detailing the difficulties which he encountered from his want of + knowing various languages, and the hard labour which he underwent in + learning the elements of the Japanese tongue. + </p> + <p> + Until about ten years after Xavier's death, then, as Emanuel Acosta's + publication shows, the letters of the missionaries continued without any + indication of miracles performed by the saint. Though, as we shall see + presently, abundant legends had already begun to grow elsewhere, not one + word regarding these miracles came as yet from the country which, + according to later accounts accepted and sanctioned by the Church, was at + this very period filled with miracles; not the slightest indication of + them from the men who were supposed to be in the very thick of these + miraculous manifestations. + </p> + <p> + But this negative evidence is by no means all. There is also positive + evidence—direct testimony from the Jesuit order itself—that + Xavier wrought no miracles. + </p> + <p> + For not only did neither Xavier nor his co-workers know anything of the + mighty works afterward attributed to him, but the highest contemporary + authority on the whole subject, a man in the closest correspondence with + those who knew most about the saint, a member of the Society of Jesus in + the highest standing and one of its accepted historians, not only + expressly tells us that Xavier wrought no miracles, but gives the reasons + why he wrought none. + </p> + <p> + This man was Joseph Acosta, a provincial of the Jesuit order, its visitor + in Aragon, superior at Valladolid, and finally rector of the University of + Salamanca. In 1571, nineteen years after Xavier's death, Acosta devoted + himself to writing a work mainly concerning the conversion of the Indies, + and in this he refers especially and with the greatest reverence to + Xavier, holding him up as an ideal and his work as an example. + </p> + <p> + But on the same page with this tribute to the great missionary Acosta goes + on to discuss the reasons why progress in the world's conversion is not so + rapid as in the early apostolic times, and says that an especial cause why + apostolic preaching could no longer produce apostolic results "lies in the + missionaries themselves, because there is now no power of working + miracles." He then asks, "Why should our age be so completely destitute of + them?" This question he answers at great length, and one of his main + contentions is that in early apostolic times illiterate men had to convert + the learned of the world, whereas in modern times the case is reversed, + learned men being sent to convert the illiterate; and hence that "in the + early times miracles were necessary, but in our time they are not." + </p> + <p> + This statement and argument refer, as we have seen, directly to Xavier by + name, and to the period covered by his activity and that of the other + great missionaries of his time. That the Jesuit order and the Church at + large thought this work of Acosta trustworthy is proved by the fact that + it was published at Salamanca a few years after it was written, and + republished afterward with ecclesiastical sanction in France.(291) Nothing + shows better than the sequel how completely the evolution of miraculous + accounts depends upon the intellectual atmosphere of any land and time, + and how independent it is of fact. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (291)The work of Joseph Acosta is in the Cornell University Library, +its title being as follows: De Natura Novi Orbis libri duo et De +Promulgatione Evangelii apud Barbaros, sive De Procuranda Indorum +Salute, libri sex, autore Jesepho Acosta, presbytero Societis Jesu. I. +H. S. Salmanticas, apud Guillelmum Foquel, MDLXXXIX. For the passages +cited directly contradicting the working of miracles by Xavier and his +associates, see lib. ii, cap. ix, of which the title runs, Cur +Miracula in Conversione gentium non fiant nunc, ut olim, a Christi +praedicatoribus, especially pp. 242-245; also lib. ii, cap. viii, pp. +237 et seq. For a passage which shows that Xavier was not then at all +credited with "the miraculous gift of tongues," see lib. i, cap. vii, +p. 173. Since writing the above, my attention has been called to the +alleged miraculous preservation of Xavier's body claimed in sundry +letters contemporary with its disinterment at San Chan and reinterment +at Goa. There is no reason why this preservation in itself need be +doubted, and no reason why it should be counted miraculous. Such +exceptional preservation of bodies has been common enough in all ages, +and, alas for the claims of the Church, quite as common of pagans or +Protestants as of good Catholics. One of the most famous cases is +that of the fair Roman maiden, Julia, daughter of Claudius, over whose +exhumation at Rome, in 1485, such ado was made by the sceptical scholars +of the Renaissance. Contemporary observers tell us enthusiastically that +she was very beautiful, perfectly preserved, "the bloom of youth still +upom her cheeks," and exhaling a "sweet odour"; but this enthusiasm was +so little to the taste of Pope Innocent VIII that he had her reburied +secretly by night. Only the other day, in June of the year 1895, there +was unearthed at Stade, in Hanover, the "perfectly preserved" body of +a soldier of the eighth century. So, too, I might mention the bodies +preserved at the church of St. Thomas at Strasburg, beneath the +Cathedral of Bremen, and elsewhere during hundreds of years past; also +the cases of "adiposeration" in various American cemeteries, which never +grow less wonderful by repetition from mouth to mouth and in the public +prints. But, while such preservation is not incredible or even strange, +there is much reason why precisely in the case of a saint like St. +Francis Xavier the evidence for it should be received with especial +caution. What the touching fidelity of disciples may lead them to +believe and proclaim regarding an adored leader in a time when faith +is thought more meritorious than careful statement, and miracle more +probable than the natural course of things, is seen, for example, +in similar pious accounts regarding the bodies of many other saints, +especially that of St. Carlo Borromeo, so justly venerated by the Church +for his beautiful and charitable life. And yet any one looking at the +relics of various saints, especially those of St. Carlo, preserved with +such tender care in the crypt of Milan Cathedral, will see that they +have shared the common fate, being either mummified or reduced to +skeletons; and this is true in all cases, as far as my observation has +extended. What even a great theologian can be induced to believe +and testify in a somewhat similar matter, is seen in St. Augustine's +declaration that the flesh of the peacock, which in antiquity and in the +early Church was considered a bird somewhat supernaturally endowed, is +incorruptible. The saint declares that he tested it and found it so (see +the De Civitate dei, xxi, c. 4, under the passage beginning Quis enim +Deus). With this we may compare the testimony of the pious author of +Sir John Mandeville's Travels, that iron floats upon the Dead Sea while +feathers sink in it, and that he would not have believed this had he not +seen it. So, too, testimony to the "sweet odour" diffused by the exhumed +remains of the saint seem to indicate feeling rather than fact—those +highly wrought feelings of disciples standing by—the same feeling which +led those who visited St. Simon Stylites on his heap of ordure, and +other hermits unwashed and living in filth, to dwell upon the delicious +"odour of sanctity" pervading the air. In point, perhaps, is Louis +Veuillot's idealization of the "parfum de Rome," in face of the fact, to +which the present writer and thousands of others can testify, that +under Papal rule Rome was materially one of the most filthy cities in +Christendom. For the case of Julia, see the contemporary letter printed +by Janitschek, Gesellschaft der Renaissance in Italien, p. 120, note +167; also Infessura, Diarium Rom. Urbis, in Muratori, tom. iii, pt. 2, +col. 1192, 1193, and elsewhere; also Symonds, Renaissance in Italy: Age +of Despots, p. 22. For the case at Stade, see press dispatch from Berlin +in newspapers of June 24, 25, 1895. The copy of Emanuel Acosta I have +mainly used is that in the Royal Library at Munich, De Japonicus rebus +epistolarum libri iii, item recogniti; et in Latinum ex Hispanico +sermone conversi, Dilingae, MDLXXI. I have since obtained and used the +work now in the library of Cornell University, being the letters and +commentary published by Emanuel Acosta and attached to Maffei's book on +the History of the Indies, published at Antwerp in 1685. For the first +beginnings of miracles wrought by Xavier, as given in the letters of +the missionaries, see that of Almeida, lib. ii, p. 183. Of other +collections, or selections from collections, of letters which fail to +give any indication of miracles wrought by Xavier during his life, +see Wytfliet and Magin, Histoire Universelle des Indes Occidentales et +Orientales, et de la Conversion des Indiens, Douay, 1611. Though several +letters of Xavier and his fellow-missionaries are given, dated at the +very period of his alleged miracles, not a trace of miracles appears in +these. Also Epistolae Japonicae de multorum in variis Insulis Gentilium +ad Christi fidem Conversione, Lovanii, 1570. These letters were written +by Xavier and his companions from the East Indies and Japan, and cover +the years from 1549 to 1564. Though these refer frequently to Xavier, +there is no mention of a miracle wrought by him in any of them written +during his lifetime. +</pre> + <p> + For, shortly after Xavier's heroic and beautiful death in 1552, stories of + miracles wrought by him began to appear. At first they were few and + feeble; and two years later Melchior Nunez, Provincial of the Jesuits in + the Portuguese dominions, with all the means at his command, and a + correspondence extending throughout Eastern Asia, had been able to hear of + but three. These were entirely from hearsay. First, John Deyro said he + knew that Xavier had the gift of prophecy; but, unfortunately, Xavier + himself had reprimanded and cast off Deyro for untruthfulness and + cheatery. Secondly, it was reported vaguely that at Cape Comorin many + persons affirmed that Xavier had raised a man from the dead. Thirdly, + Father Pablo de Santa Fe had heard that in Japan Xavier had restored sight + to a blind man. This seems a feeble beginning, but little by little the + stories grew, and in 1555 De Quadros, Provincial of the Jesuits in + Ethiopia, had heard of nine miracles, and asserted that Xavier had healed + the sick and cast out devils. The next year, being four years after + Xavier's death, King John III of Portugal, a very devout man, directed his + viceroy Barreto to draw up and transmit to him an authentic account of + Xavier's miracles, urging him especially to do the work "with zeal and + speedily." We can well imagine what treasures of grace an obsequious + viceroy, only too anxious to please a devout king, could bring together by + means of the hearsay of ignorant, compliant natives through all the little + towns of Portuguese India. + </p> + <p> + But the letters of the missionaries who had been co-workers or immediate + successors of Xavier in his Eastern field were still silent as regards any + miracles by him, and they remained silent for nearly ten years. In the + collection of letters published by Emanuel Acosta and others no hint at + any miracles by him is given, until at last, in 1562, fully ten years + after Xavier's death, the first faint beginnings of these legends appear + in them. + </p> + <p> + At that time the Jesuit Almeida, writing at great length to the brethren, + stated that he had found a pious woman who believed that a book left + behind by Xavier had healed sick folk when it was laid upon them, and that + he had met an old man who preserved a whip left by the saint which, when + properly applied to the sick, had been found good both for their bodies + and their souls. From these and other small beginnings grew, always + luxuriant and sometimes beautiful, the vast mass of legends which we shall + see hereafter. + </p> + <p> + This growth was affectionately garnered by the more zealous and less + critical brethren in Europe until it had become enormous; but it appears + to have been thought of little value by those best able to judge. + </p> + <p> + For when, in 1562, Julius Gabriel Eugubinus delivered a solemn oration on + the condition and glory of the Church, before the papal legates and other + fathers assembled at the Council of Trent, while he alluded to a multitude + of things showing the Divine favour, there was not the remotest allusion + to the vast multitude of miracles which, according to the legends, had + been so profusely lavished on the faithful during many years, and which, + if they had actually occurred, formed an argument of prodigious value in + behalf of the special claims of the Church. + </p> + <p> + The same complete absence of knowledge of any such favours vouchsafed to + the Church, or at least of any belief in them, appears in that great + Council of Trent among the fathers themselves. Certainly there, if + anywhere, one might on the Roman theory expect Divine illumination in a + matter of this kind. The presence of the Holy Spirit in the midst of it + was especially claimed, and yet its members, with all their spiritual as + well as material advantages for knowing what had been going on in the + Church during the previous thirty years, and with Xavier's own friend and + colleague, Laynez, present to inform them, show not the slightest sign of + any suspicion of Xavier's miracles. We have the letters of Julius Gabriel + to the foremost of these fathers assembled at Trent, from 1557 onward for + a considerable time, and we have also a multitude of letters written from + the Council by bishops, cardinals, and even by the Pope himself, + discussing all sorts of Church affairs, and in not one of these is there + evidence of the remotest suspicion that any of these reports, which they + must have heard, regarding Xavier's miracles, were worthy of mention. + </p> + <p> + Here, too, comes additional supplementary testimony of much significance. + With these orations and letters, Eugubinus gives a Latin translation of a + letter, "on religious affairs in the Indies," written by a Jesuit father + twenty years after Xavier's death. Though the letter came from a field + very distant from that in which Xavier laboured, it was sure, among the + general tokens of Divine favour to the Church and to the order, on which + it dwelt, to have alluded to miracles wrought by Xavier had there been the + slightest ground for believing in them; but no such allusion appears.(292) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (292) For the work referred to, see Julii Gabrielii Eugubini orationum +et epistolarum, etc., libri duo (et) Epitola de rebus Indicis a quodam +Societatis Jesu presbytero, etc., Venetiis, 1569. The Epistola begins at +fol. 44. +</pre> + <p> + So, too, when in 1588, thirty-six years after Xavier's death, the Jesuit + father Maffei, who had been especially conversant with Xavier's career in + the East, published his History of India, though he gave a biography of + Xavier which shows fervent admiration for his subject, he dwelt very + lightly on the alleged miracles. But the evolution of miraculous legends + still went on. Six years later, in 1594, Father Tursellinus published his + Life of Xavier, and in this appears to have made the first large use of + the information collected by the Portuguese viceroy and the more zealous + brethren. This work shows a vast increase in the number of miracles over + those given by all sources together up to that time. Xavier is represented + as not only curing the sick, but casting out devils, stilling the tempest, + raising the dead, and performing miracles of every sort. + </p> + <p> + In 1622 came the canonization proceedings at Rome. Among the speeches made + in the presence of Pope Gregory XV, supporting the claims of Xavier to + saintship, the most important was by Cardinal Monte. In this the orator + selects out ten great miracles from those performed by Xavier during his + lifetime and describes them minutely. He insists that on a certain + occasion Xavier, by the sign of the cross, made sea-water fresh, so that + his fellow-passengers and the crew could drink it; that he healed the sick + and raised the dead in various places; brought back a lost boat to his + ship; was on one occasion lifted from the earth bodily and transfigured + before the bystanders; and that, to punish a blaspheming town, he caused + an earthquake and buried the offenders in cinders from a volcano: this was + afterward still more highly developed, and the saint was represented in + engravings as calling down fire from heaven and thus destroying the town. + </p> + <p> + The most curious miracle of all is the eighth on the cardinal's list. + Regarding this he states that, Xavier having during one of his voyages + lost overboard a crucifix, it was restored to him after he had reached the + shore by a crab. + </p> + <p> + The cardinal also dwelt on miracles performed by Xavier's relics after his + death, the most original being that sundry lamps placed before the image + of the saint and filled with holy water burned as if filled with oil. + </p> + <p> + This latter account appears to have deeply impressed the Pope, for in the + Bull of Canonization issued by virtue of his power of teaching the + universal Church infallibly in all matters pertaining to faith and morals, + His Holiness dwells especially upon the miracle of the lamp filled with + holy water and burning before Xavier's image. + </p> + <p> + Xavier having been made a saint, many other Lives of him appeared, and, as + a rule, each surpassed its predecessor in the multitude of miracles. In + 1622 appeared that compiled and published under the sanction of Father + Vitelleschi, and in it not only are new miracles increased, but some old + ones are greatly improved. One example will suffice to show the process. + In his edition of 1596, Tursellinus had told how, Xavier one day needing + money, and having asked Vellio, one of his friends, to let him have some, + Vellio gave him the key of a safe containing thirty thousand gold pieces. + Xavier took three hundred and returned the key to Vellio; whereupon + Vellio, finding only three hundred pieces gone, reproached Xavier for not + taking more, saying that he had expected to give him half of all that the + strong box contained. Xavier, touched by this generosity, told Vellio that + the time of his death should be made known to him, that he might have + opportunity to repent of his sins and prepare for eternity. But twenty-six + years later the Life of Xavier published under the sanction of + Vitelleschi, giving the story, says that Vellio on opening the safe found + that ALL HIS MONEY remained as he had left it, and that NONE AT ALL had + disappeared; in fact, that there had been a miraculous restitution. On his + blaming Xavier for not taking the money, Xavier declares to Vellio that + not only shall he be apprised of the moment of his death, but that the box + shall always be full of money. Still later biographers improved the + account further, declaring that Xavier promised Vellio that the strong box + should always contain money sufficient for all his needs. In that warm and + uncritical atmosphere this and other legends grew rapidly, obedient to + much the same laws which govern the evolution of fairy tales.(293) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (293) The writer in the Catholic World, already mentioned, rather +rashly asserts that there is no such Life of Xavier as that I have +above quoted. The reverend Jesuit father has evidently glanced over the +bibliographies of Carayon and De Backer, and, not finding it there +under the name of Vitelleschi, has spared himself further trouble. It +is sufficient to say that the book may be seen by him in the library of +Cornell University. Its full title is as follows: Compendio della Vita +del s. p. Francesco Xaviero dell Campagnia di Giesu, Canonizato con +s. Ignatio Fondatore dell' istessa Religione dalla Santita di N. S. +Gregorio XV. Composto, e dato in luce per ordine del Reverendiss. P +Mutio Vitelleschi Preposito Generale della Comp. di Giesu. In Venetia, +MDCXXII, Appresso Antonio Pinelli. Con Licenza de' Superiori. My critic +hazards a guess that the book may be a later edition of Torsellino +(Tursellinus), but here again he is wrong. It is entirely a different +book, giving in its preface a list of sources comprising eleven +authorities besides Torsellino. +</pre> + <p> + In 1682, one hundred and thirty years after Xavier's death, appeared his + biography by Father Bouhours; and this became a classic. In it the old + miracles of all kinds were enormously multiplied, and many new ones given. + Miracles few and small in Tursellinus became many and great in Bouhours. + In Tursellinus, Xavier during his life saves one person from drowning, in + Bouhours he saves during his life three; in Tursellinus, Xavier during his + life raises four persons from the dead, in Bouhours fourteen; in + Tursellinus there is one miraculous supply of water, in Bouhours three; in + Tursellinus there is no miraculous draught of fishes, in Bouhours there is + one; in Tursellinus, Xavier is transfigured twice, in Bouhours five times: + and so through a long series of miracles which, in the earlier lives + appearing either not at all or in very moderate form, are greatly + increased and enlarged by Tursellinus, and finally enormously amplified + and multiplied by Father Bouhours. + </p> + <p> + And here it must be borne in mind that Bouhours, writing ninety years + after Tursellinus, could not have had access to any new sources. Xavier + had been dead one hundred and thirty years, and of course all the natives + upon whom he had wrought his miracles, and their children and + grandchildren, were gone. It can not then be claimed that Bouhours had the + advantage of any new witnesses, nor could he have had anything new in the + way of contemporary writings; for, as we have seen, the missionaries of + Xavier's time wrote nothing regarding his miracles, and certainly the + ignorant natives of India and Japan did not commit any account of his + miracles to writing. Nevertheless, the miracles of healing given in + Bouhours were more numerous and brilliant than ever. But there was far + more than this. Although during the lifetime of Xavier there is neither in + his own writings nor in any contemporary account any assertion of a + resurrection from the dead wrought by him, we find that shortly after his + death stories of such resurrections began to appear. A simple statement of + the growth of these may throw some light on the evolution of miraculous + accounts generally. At first it was affirmed that some people at Cape + Comorin said that he had raised one person; then it was said that there + were two persons; then in various authors—Emanuel Acosta, in his + commentaries written as an afterthought nearly twenty years after Xavier's + death, De Quadros, and others—the story wavers between one and two + cases; finally, in the time of Tursellinus, four cases had been developed. + In 1622, at the canonization proceedings, three were mentioned; but by the + time of Father Bouhours there were fourteen—all raised from the dead + by Xavier himself during his lifetime—and the name, place, and + circumstances are given with much detail in each case.(294) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (294) The writer in the Catholic World, already referred to, has based +an attack here upon a misconception—I will not call it a deliberate +misrepresentation—of his own by stating that these resurrections +occurred after Xavier's death, and were due to his intercession or the +use of his relics. The statement of the Jesuit father is utterly without +foundation, as a simple reference to Bouhours will show. I take the +liberty of commending to his attention The Life of St. Francis Xavier, +by Father Dominic Bouhours, translated by James Dryden, Dublin, 1838. +For examples of raising the dead by the saint DURING HIS LIFETIME, see +pp. 69, 82, 93, 111, 218, 307, 316, 321—fourteen cases in all. +</pre> + <p> + It seems to have been felt as somewhat strange at first that Xavier had + never alluded to any of these wonderful miracles; but ere long a + subsidiary legend was developed, to the effect that one of the brethren + asked him one day if he had raised the dead, whereat he blushed deeply and + cried out against the idea, saying: "And so I am said to have raised the + dead! What a misleading man I am! Some men brought a youth to me just as + if he were dead, who, when I commanded him to arise in the name of Christ, + straightway arose." + </p> + <p> + Noteworthy is the evolution of other miracles. Tursellinus, writing in + 1594, tells us that on the voyage from Goa to Malacca, Xavier having left + the ship and gone upon an island, was afterward found by the persons sent + in search of him so deeply absorbed in prayer as to be unmindful of all + things about him. But in the next century Father Bouhours develops the + story as follows: "The servants found the man of God raised from the + ground into the air, his eyes fixed upon heaven, and rays of light about + his countenance." + </p> + <p> + Instructive, also, is a comparison between the successive accounts of his + noted miracle among the Badages at Travancore, in 1544 Xavier in his + letters makes no reference to anything extraordinary; and Emanuel Acosta, + in 1571, declares simply that "Xavier threw himself into the midst of the + Christians, that reverencing him they might spare the rest." The + inevitable evolution of the miraculous goes on; and twenty years later + Tursellinus tells us that, at the onslaught of the Badages, "they could + not endure the majesty of his countenance and the splendour and rays which + issued from his eyes, and out of reverence for him they spared the + others." The process of incubation still goes on during ninety years more, + and then comes Father Bouhours's account. Having given Xavier's prayer on + the battlefield, Bouhours goes on to say that the saint, crucifix in hand, + rushed at the head of the people toward the plain where the enemy was + marching, and "said to them in a threatening voice, 'I forbid you in the + name of the living God to advance farther, and on His part command you to + return in the way you came.' These few words cast a terror into the minds + of those soldiers who were at the head of the army; they remained + confounded and without motion. They who marched afterward, seeing that the + foremost did not advance, asked the reason of it. The answer was returned + from the front ranks that they had before their eyes an unknown person + habited in black, of more than human stature, of terrible aspect, and + darting fire from his eyes.... They were seized with amazement at the + sight, and all of them fled in precipitate confusion." + </p> + <p> + Curious, too, is the after-growth of the miracle of the crab restoring the + crucifix. In its first form Xavier lost the crucifix in the sea, and the + earlier biographers dwell on the sorrow which he showed in consequence; + but the later historians declare that the saint threw the crucifix into + the sea in order to still a tempest, and that, after his safe getting to + land, a crab brought it to him on the shore. In this form we find it among + illustrations of books of devotion in the next century. + </p> + <p> + But perhaps the best illustration of this evolution of Xavier's miracles + is to be found in the growth of another legend; and it is especially + instructive because it grew luxuriantly despite the fact that it was + utterly contradicted in all parts of Xavier's writings as well as in the + letters of his associates and in the work of the Jesuit father, Joseph + Acosta. + </p> + <p> + Throughout his letters, from first to last, Xavier constantly dwells upon + his difficulties with the various languages of the different tribes among + whom he went. He tells us how he surmounted these difficulties: sometimes + by learning just enough of a language to translate into it some of the + main Church formulas; sometimes by getting the help of others to patch + together some pious teachings to be learned by rote; sometimes by + employing interpreters; and sometimes by a mixture of various dialects, + and even by signs. On one occasion he tells us that a very serious + difficulty arose, and that his voyage to China was delayed because, among + other things, the interpreter he had engaged had failed to meet him. + </p> + <p> + In various Lives which appeared between the time of his death and his + canonization this difficulty is much dwelt upon; but during the + canonization proceedings at Rome, in the speeches then made, and finally + in the papal bull, great stress was laid upon the fact that Xavier + possessed THE GIFT OF TONGUES. It was declared that he spoke to the + various tribes with ease in their own languages. This legend of Xavier's + miraculous gift of tongues was especially mentioned in the papal bull, and + was solemnly given forth by the pontiff as an infallible statement to be + believed by the universal Church. Gregory XV having been prevented by + death from issuing the Bull of Canonization, it was finally issued by + Urban VIII; and there is much food for reflection in the fact that the + same Pope who punished Galileo, and was determined that the Inquisition + should not allow the world to believe that the earth revolves about the + sun, thus solemnly ordered the world, under pain of damnation, to believe + in Xavier's miracles, including his "gift of tongues," and the return of + the crucifix by the pious crab. But the legend was developed still + further: Father Bouhours tells us, "The holy man spoke very well the + language of those barbarians without having learned it, and had no need of + an interpreter when he instructed." And, finally, in our own time, the + Rev. Father Coleridge, speaking of the saint among the natives, says, "He + could speak the language excellently, though he had never learned it." + </p> + <p> + In the early biography, Tursellinus writes. "Nothing was a greater + impediment to him than his ignorance of the Japanese tongues; for, ever + and anon, when some uncouth expression offended their fastidious and + delicate ears, the awkward speech of Francis was a cause of laughter." But + Father Bouhours, a century later, writing of Xavier at the same period, + says, "He preached in the afternoon to the Japanese in their language, but + so naturally and with so much ease that he could not be taken for a + foreigner." + </p> + <p> + And finally, in 1872, Father Coleridge, of the Society of Jesus, speaking + of Xavier at this time, says, "He spoke freely, flowingly, elegantly, as + if he had lived in Japan all his life." + </p> + <p> + Nor was even this sufficient: to make the legend complete, it was finally + declared that, when Xavier addressed the natives of various tribes, each + heard the sermon in his own language in which he was born. + </p> + <p> + All this, as we have seen, directly contradicts not only the plain + statements of Xavier himself, and various incidental testimonies in the + letters of his associates, but the explicit declaration of Father Joseph + Acosta. The latter historian dwells especially on the labour which Xavier + was obliged to bestow on the study of the Japanese and other languages, + and says, "Even if he had been endowed with the apostolic gift of tongues, + he could not have spread more widely the glory of Christ."(295) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (295) For the evolution of the miracles of Xavier, see his Letters, with +Life, published by Leon Pages, Paris, 1855; also Maffei, Historiarum +Indicarum libri xvi, Venice, 1589; also the lives by Tursellinus, +various editions, beginning with that of 1594; Vitelleschi, 1622; +Bouhours, 1683; Massei, second edition, 1682 (Rome), and others; +Bartoli, Baltimore, 1868; Coleridge, 1872. In addition to these, I have +compared, for a more extended discussion of this subject hereafter, +a very great number of editions of these and other biographies of +the saint, with speeches at the canonization, the bull of Gregory XV, +various books of devotion, and a multitude of special writings, some +of them in manuscript, upon the glories of the saint, including a large +mass of material at the Royal Library in Munich and in the British +Museum. I have relied entirely upon Catholic authors, and have +not thought it worth while to consult any Protestant author. The +illustration of the miracle of the crucifix and the crab in its final +form is given in La Devotion de Dix Vendredis a l'Honneur de St. +Francois Xavier, Bruxelles, 1699, Fig. 24: the pious crab is represented +as presenting the crucifix by which a journey of forty leagues he has +brought from the depths of the ocean to Xavier, who walks upon the +shore. The book is in the Cornell University Library. For the letter +of King John to Barreto, see Leon Pages's Lettres de Francois Xavier, +Paris, 1855, vol. ii, p. 465. For the miracle among the Badages, compare +Tursellinus, lib. ii, c. x, p. 16, with Bouhours, Dryden's translation, +pp. 146, 147. For the miracle of the gift of tongues, in its higher +development, see Bouhours, p. 235, and Coleridge, vo. i, pp. 151, 154, +and vol. ii, p. 551 +</pre> + <p> + It is hardly necessary to attribute to the orators and biographers + generally a conscious attempt to deceive. The simple fact is, that as a + rule they thought, spoke, and wrote in obedience to the natural laws which + govern the luxuriant growth of myth and legend in the warm atmosphere of + love and devotion which constantly arises about great religious leaders in + times when men have little or no knowledge of natural law, when there is + little care for scientific evidence, and when he who believes most is + thought most meritorious.(296) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (296) Instances can be given of the same evolution of miraculous legend +in our own time. To say nothing of the sacred fountain at La Salette, +which preserves its healing powers in spite of the fact that the miracle +that gave rise to them has twice been pronounced fraudulent by the +French courts, and to pass without notice a multitude of others, not +only in Catholic but in Protestant countries, the present writer may +allude to one which in the year 1893 came under his own observation. +On arriving in St. Petersburg to begin an official residence there, +his attention was arrested by various portraits of a priest of the +Russo-Greek Church; they were displayed in shop windows and held an +honoured place in many private dwellings. These portraits ranged from +lifelike photographs, which showed a plain, shrewd, kindly face, to +those which were idealized until they bore a strong resemblance to the +conventional representations of Jesus of Nazareth. On making inquiries, +the writer found that these portraits represented Father Ivan, of +Cronstadt, a priest noted for his good works, and very widely believed +to be endowed with the power of working miracles. +</pre> + <p> + One day, in one of the most brilliant reception rooms of the northern + capital, the subject of Father Ivan's miracles having been introduced, a + gentleman in very high social position and entirely trustworthy spoke as + follows: "There is something very surprising about these miracles. I am + slow to believe in them, but I know the following to be a fact: The late + Metropolitan Archbishop of St. Petersburg loved quiet, and was very + adverse to anything which could possibly cause scandal. Hearing of Father + Ivan's miracles, he summoned him to his presence and solemnly commanded + him to abstain from all of the things which had given rise to his reported + miracles, and with this injunction, dismissed him. Hardly had the priest + left the room when the archbishop was struck with blindness and remained + in this condition until the priest returned and removed his blindness by + intercessory prayers." When the present writer asked the person giving + this account if he directly knew these facts, he replied that he was, of + course, not present when the miracle was wrought, but that he had the + facts immediately from persons who knew all the parties concerned and were + cognizant directly of the circumstances of the case. + </p> + <p> + Some time afterward, the present writer being at an afternoon reception at + one of the greater embassies, the same subject was touched upon, when an + eminent general spoke as follows: "I am not inclined to believe in + miracles, in fact am rather sceptical, but the proofs of those wrought by + Father Ivan are overwhelming." He then went on to say that the late + Metropolitan Archbishop was a man who loved quiet and disliked scandal; + and that on this account he had summoned Father Ivan to his palace and + ordered him to put an end to the conduct which had caused the reports + concerning his miraculous powers, and then, with a wave of the arm, had + dismissed him. The priest left the room, and from that moment the + archbishop's arm was paralyzed, and it remained so until the penitent + prelate summoned the priest again, by whose prayers the arm was restored + to its former usefulness. There was present at the time another person + besides the writer who had heard the previous statement as to the + blindness of the archbishop, and on their both questioning the general if + he were sure that the archbishop's arm was paralyzed, as stated, he + declared that he could not doubt it, as he had it directly from persons + entirely trustworthy, who were cognizant of all the facts. + </p> + <p> + Some time later, the present writer, having an interview with the most + eminent lay authority in the Greek Church, a functionary whose duties had + brought him into almost daily contact with the late archbishop, asked him + which of these stories was correct. This gentleman answered immediately: + "Neither; I saw the archbishop constantly, and no such event occurred; he + was never paralyzed and never blind." + </p> + <p> + The same gentleman went on to say that, in his belief, Father Ivan had + shown remarkable powers in healing the sick, and the greatest charity in + relieving the distressed. It was made clearly evident that Father Ivan is + a saintlike man, devoted to the needy and distressed and exercising an + enormous influence over them—an influence so great that crowds await + him whenever he visits the capital. In the atmosphere of Russian devotion + myths and legends grow luxuriantly about him, nor is belief in him + confined to the peasant class. In the autumn of 1894 he was summoned to + the bedside of the Emperor Alexander III. Unfortunately for the peace of + Europe, his intercession at that time proved unavailing. + </p> + <p> + These examples will serve to illustrate the process which in thousands of + cases has gone on from the earliest days of the Church until a very recent + period. Everywhere miraculous cures became the rule rather than the + exception throughout Christendom. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0047" id="link2H_4_0047"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III. THE MEDIAEVAL MIRACLES OF HEALING CHECK MEDICAL SCIENCE. + </h2> + <p> + So it was that, throughout antiquity, during the early history of the + Church, throughout the Middle Ages, and indeed down to a comparatively + recent period, testimony to miraculous interpositions which would now be + laughed at by a schoolboy was accepted by the leaders of thought. St. + Augustine was certainly one of the strongest minds in the early Church, + and yet we find him mentioning, with much seriousness, a story that sundry + innkeepers of his time put a drug into cheese which metamorphosed + travellers into domestic animals, and asserting that the peacock is so + favoured by the Almighty that its flesh will not decay, and that he has + tested it and knows this to be a fact. With such a disposition regarding + the wildest stories, it is not surprising that the assertion of St. + Gregory of Nazianzen, during the second century, as to the cures wrought + by the martyrs Cosmo and Damian, was echoed from all parts of Europe until + every hamlet had its miracle-working saint or relic. + </p> + <p> + The literature of these miracles is simply endless. To take our own + ancestors alone, no one can read the Ecclesiastical History of Bede, or + Abbot Samson's Miracles of St. Edmund, or the accounts given by Eadmer and + Osbern of the miracles of St. Dunstan, or the long lists of those wrought + by Thomas a Becket, or by any other in the army of English saints, without + seeing the perfect naturalness of this growth. This evolution of miracle + in all parts of Europe came out of a vast preceding series of beliefs, + extending not merely through the early Church but far back into paganism. + Just as formerly patients were cured in the temples of Aesculapius, so + they were cured in the Middle Ages, and so they are cured now at the + shrines of saints. Just as the ancient miracles were solemnly attested by + votive tablets, giving names, dates, and details, and these tablets hung + before the images of the gods, so the medieval miracles were attested by + similar tablets hung before the images of the saints; and so they are + attested to-day by similar tablets hung before the images of Our Lady of + La Salette or of Lourdes. Just as faith in such miracles persisted, in + spite of the small percentage of cures at those ancient places of healing, + so faith persists to-day, despite the fact that in at least ninety per + cent of the cases at Lourdes prayers prove unavailing. As a rule, the + miracles of the sacred books were taken as models, and each of those given + by the sacred chroniclers was repeated during the early ages of the Church + and through the medieval period with endless variations of circumstance, + but still with curious fidelity to the original type. + </p> + <p> + It should be especially kept in mind that, while the vast majority of + these were doubtless due to the myth-making faculty and to that + development of legends which always goes on in ages ignorant of the + relation between physical causes and effects, some of the miracles of + healing had undoubtedly some basis in fact. We in modern times have seen + too many cures performed through influences exercised upon the + imagination, such as those of the Jansenists at the Cemetery of St. + Medard, of the Ultramontanes at La Salette and Lourdes, of the Russian + Father Ivan at St. Petersburg, and of various Protestant sects at Old + Orchard and elsewhere, as well as at sundry camp meetings, to doubt that + some cures, more or less permanent, were wrought by sainted personages in + the early Church and throughout the Middle Ages.(297) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (297) For the story of travellers converted into domestic animals, see +St. Augustine, De Civ. Dei, liber xviii, chaps. xvii, xviii, in Migne, +tom. xli, p.574. For Gregory of Nazianen and the similarity of these +Christian cures in general character to those wrought in the temples +of Aesculapius, see Sprengel, vol. ii, pp. 145, 146. For the miracles +wrought at the shrine of St. Edmund, see Samsonis Abbatis Opus de +Miraculis Sancti Aedmundi, in the Master of the Rolls' series, passim, +but especially chaps. xiv and xix for miracles of healing wrought on +those who drank out of the saint's cup. For the mighty works of St. +Dunstan, see the Mirac. Sancti Dunstani, auctore Eadmero and auctore +Osberno, in the Master of the Rolls' series. As to Becket, see the +Materials for the History of Thomas Becket, in the same series, and +especially the lists of miracles—the mere index of them in the first +volume requires thirteen octavo pages. For St. Martin of Tours, see the +Guizot collection of French Chronicles. For miracle and shrine cures +chronicled by Bede, see his Ecclesiastical History, passim, but +especially from page 110 to page 267. For similarity between the ancient +custom of allowing invalids to sleep in the temples of Serapis and the +mediaeval custom of having them sleep in the church of St. Anthony of +Padua and other churches, see Meyer, Aberglaube des Mittelalters, Basel, +1884, chap. iv. For the effect of "the vivid belief in supernatural +action which attaches itself to the tombs of the saints," etc., as "a +psychic agent of great value," see Littre, Medecine et Medecins, p. 131. +For the Jansenist miracles at Paris, see La Verite des Miracles operes +par l'Intercession de M. de Paris, par Montgeron, Utrecht, 1737, and +especially the cases of Mary Anne Couronneau, Philippe Sargent, +and Gautier de Pezenas. For some very thoughtful remarks as to the +worthlessness of the testimony to miracles presented during the +canonization proceedings at Rome, see Maury, Legendes Pieuses, pp. 4-7. +</pre> + <p> + There are undoubtedly serious lesions which yield to profound emotion and + vigorous exertion born of persuasion, confidence, or excitement. The + wonderful power of the mind over the body is known to every observant + student. Mr. Herbert Spencer dwells upon the fact that intense feeling or + passion may bring out great muscular force. Dr. Berdoe reminds us that "a + gouty man who has long hobbled about on his crutch, finds his legs and + power to run with them if pursued by a wild bull"; and that "the feeblest + invalid, under the influence of delirium or other strong excitement, will + astonish her nurse by the sudden accession of strength."(298) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (298) For the citation in the text, as well as for a brief but +remarkably valuable discussion of the power of the mind over the body +in disease, see Dr. Berdoe's Medical View of the Miracles at Lourdes, in +The Nineteenth Century for October, 1895. +</pre> + <p> + But miraculous cures were not ascribed to persons merely. Another growth, + developed by the early Church mainly from germs in our sacred books, took + shape in miracles wrought by streams, by pools of water, and especially by + relics. Here, too, the old types persisted, and just as we find holy and + healing wells, pools, and streams in all other ancient religions, so we + find in the evolution of our own such examples as Naaman the Syrian cured + of leprosy by bathing in the river Jordan, the blind man restored to sight + by washing in the pool of Siloam, and the healing of those who touched the + bones of Elisha, the shadow of St. Peter, or the handkerchief of St. Paul. + </p> + <p> + St. Cyril, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and other great fathers of the + early Church, sanctioned the belief that similar efficacy was to be found + in the relics of the saints of their time; hence, St. Ambrose declared + that "the precepts of medicine are contrary to celestial science, + watching, and prayer," and we find this statement reiterated from time to + time throughout the Middle Ages. From this idea was evolved that fetichism + which we shall see for ages standing in the way of medical science. + </p> + <p> + Theology, developed in accordance with this idea, threw about all cures, + even those which resulted from scientific effort, an atmosphere of + supernaturalism. The vividness with which the accounts of miracles in the + sacred books were realized in the early Church continued the idea of + miraculous intervention throughout the Middle Ages. The testimony of the + great fathers of the Church to the continuance of miracles is + overwhelming; but everything shows that they so fully expected miracles on + the slightest occasion as to require nothing which in these days would be + regarded as adequate evidence. + </p> + <p> + In this atmosphere of theologic thought medical science was at once + checked. The School of Alexandria, under the influence first of Jews and + later of Christians, both permeated with Oriental ideas, and taking into + their theory of medicine demons and miracles, soon enveloped everything in + mysticism. In the Byzantine Empire of the East the same cause produced the + same effect; the evolution of ascertained truth in medicine, begun by + Hippocrates and continued by Herophilus, seemed lost forever. Medical + science, trying to advance, was like a ship becalmed in the Sargasso Sea: + both the atmosphere about it and the medium through which it must move + resisted all progress. Instead of reliance upon observation, experience, + experiment, and thought, attention was turned toward supernatural + agencies.(299) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (299) For the mysticism which gradually enveloped the School of +Alexandria, see Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire, De l'Ecole d'Alexandrie, +Paris, 1845, vol. vi, p. 161. For the effect of the new doctrines on the +Empire of the East, see Sprengel, vol. ii, p. 240. As to the more common +miracles of healing and the acknowledgment of non-Christian miracles of +healing by Christian fathers, see Fort, p. 84. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0048" id="link2H_4_0048"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IV. THE ATTRIBUTION OF DISEASE TO SATANIC INFLUENCE. + </h2> + <h3> + —"PASTORAL MEDICINE" CHECKS SCIENTIFIC EFFORT. + </h3> + <p> + Especially prejudicial to a true development of medical science among the + first Christians was their attribution of disease to diabolic influence. + As we have seen, this idea had come from far, and, having prevailed in + Chaldea, Egypt, and Persia, had naturally entered into the sacred books of + the Hebrews. Moreover, St. Paul had distinctly declared that the gods of + the heathen were devils; and everywhere the early Christians saw in + disease the malignant work of these dethroned powers of evil. The Gnostic + and Manichaean struggles had ripened the theologic idea that, although at + times diseases are punishments by the Almighty, the main agency in them is + Satanic. The great fathers and renowned leaders of the early Church + accepted and strengthened this idea. Origen said: "It is demons which + produce famine, unfruitfulness, corruptions of the air, pestilences; they + hover concealed in clouds in the lower atmosphere, and are attracted by + the blood and incense which the heathen offer to them as gods." St. + Augustine said: "All diseases of Christians are to be ascribed to these + demons; chiefly do they torment fresh-baptized Christians, yea, even the + guiltless, newborn infants." Tertullian insisted that a malevolent angel + is in constant attendance upon every person. Gregory of Nazianzus declared + that bodily pains are provoked by demons, and that medicines are useless, + but that they are often cured by the laying on of consecrated hands. St. + Nilus and St. Gregory of Tours, echoing St. Ambrose, gave examples to show + the sinfulness of resorting to medicine instead of trusting to the + intercession of saints. St. Bernard, in a letter to certain monks, warned + them that to seek relief from disease in medicine was in harmony neither + with their religion nor with the honour and purity of their order. This + view even found its way into the canon law, which declared the precepts of + medicine contrary to Divine knowledge. As a rule, the leaders of the + Church discouraged the theory that diseases are due to natural causes, and + most of them deprecated a resort to surgeons and physicians rather than to + supernatural means.(300) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (300) For Chaldean, Egyptian, and Persian ideas as to the diabolic +origin of disease, see authorities already cited, especially Maspero +and Sayce. For Origen, see the Contra Celsum, lib. viii, chap. xxxi. For +Augustine, see De Divinatione Daemonum, chap. iii (p.585 of Migne, vol. +xl). For Turtullian and Gregory of Nazianzus, see citations in Sprengel +and in Fort, p. 6. For St. Nilus, see his life, in the Bollandise Acta +Sanctorum. For Gregory of Tours, see his Historia Francorum, lib. v, +cap. 6, and his De Mirac. S. Martini, lib. ii, cap. 60. I owe these +citations to Mr. Lea (History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, +vol. iii, p. 410, note). For the letter of St. Bernard to the monks of +St. Anastasius, see his Epistola in Migne, tom. 182, pp. 550, 551. For +the canon law, see under De Consecratione, dist. v, c. xxi, "Contraria +sunt divinae cognitioni praecepta medicinae: a jejunio revocant, +lucubrare non sinunt, ab omni intentione meditiationis abducunt." For +the turning of the Greek mythology into a demonology as largely due +to St. Paul, see I Corinthians x, 20: "The things which the Gentiles +sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God." +</pre> + <p> + Out of these and similar considerations was developed the vast system of + "pastoral medicine," so powerful not only through the Middle Ages, but + even in modern times, both among Catholics and Protestants. As to its + results, we must bear in mind that, while there is no need to attribute + the mass of stories regarding miraculous cures to conscious fraud, there + was without doubt, at a later period, no small admixture of belief biased + by self-interest, with much pious invention and suppression of facts. + Enormous revenues flowed into various monasteries and churches in all + parts of Europe from relics noted for their healing powers. Every + cathedral, every great abbey, and nearly every parish church claimed + possession of healing relics. While, undoubtedly, a childlike faith was at + the bottom of this belief, there came out of it unquestionably a great + development of the mercantile spirit. The commercial value of sundry + relics was often very high. In the year 1056 a French ruler pledged + securities to the amount of ten thousand solidi for the production of the + relics of St. Just and St. Pastor, pending a legal decision regarding the + ownership between him and the Archbishop of Narbonne. The Emperor of + Germany on one occasion demanded, as a sufficient pledge for the + establishment of a city market, the arm of St. George. The body of St. + Sebastian brought enormous wealth to the Abbey of Soissons; Rome, + Canterbury, Treves, Marburg, every great city, drew large revenues from + similar sources, and the Venetian Republic ventured very considerable sums + in the purchase of relics. + </p> + <p> + Naturally, then, corporations, whether lay or ecclesiastical, which drew + large revenue from relics looked with little favour on a science which + tended to discredit their investments. + </p> + <p> + Nowhere, perhaps, in Europe can the philosophy of this development of + fetichism be better studied to-day than at Cologne. At the cathedral, + preserved in a magnificent shrine since about the twelfth century, are the + skulls of the Three Kings, or Wise Men of the East, who, guided by the + star of Bethlehem, brought gifts to the Saviour. These relics were an + enormous source of wealth to the cathedral chapter during many centuries. + But other ecclesiastical bodies in that city were both pious and shrewd, + and so we find that not far off, at the church of St. Gereon, a cemetery + has been dug up, and the bones distributed over the walls as the relics of + St. Gereon and his Theban band of martyrs! Again, at the neighbouring + church of St. Ursula, we have the later spoils of another cemetery, + covering the interior walls of the church as the bones of St. Ursula and + her eleven thousand virgin martyrs: the fact that many of them, as + anatomists now declare, are the bones of MEN does not appear in the Middle + Ages to have diminished their power of competing with the relics at the + other shrines in healing efficiency. + </p> + <p> + No error in the choice of these healing means seems to have diminished + their efficacy. When Prof. Buckland, the eminent osteologist and + geologist, discovered that the relics of St. Rosalia at Palermo, which had + for ages cured diseases and warded off epidemics, were the bones of a + goat, this fact caused not the slightest diminution in their miraculous + power. + </p> + <p> + Other developments of fetich cure were no less discouraging to the + evolution of medical science. Very important among these was the Agnus + Dei, or piece of wax from the Paschal candles, stamped with the figure of + a lamb and consecrated by the Pope. In 1471 Pope Paul II expatiated to the + Church on the efficacy of this fetich in preserving men from fire, + shipwreck, tempest, lightning, and hail, as well as in assisting women in + childbirth; and he reserved to himself and his successors the manufacture + of it. Even as late as 1517 Pope Leo X issued, for a consideration, + tickets bearing a cross and the following inscription: "This cross + measured forty times makes the height of Christ in his humanity. He who + kisses it is preserved for seven days from falling-sickness, apoplexy, and + sudden death." + </p> + <p> + Naturally, the belief thus sanctioned by successive heads of the Church, + infallible in all teaching regarding faith and morals, created a demand + for amulets and charms of all kinds; and under this influence we find a + reversion to old pagan fetiches. Nothing, on the whole, stood more + constantly in the way of any proper development of medical science than + these fetich cures, whose efficacy was based on theological reasoning and + sanctioned by ecclesiastical policy. It would be expecting too much from + human nature to imagine that pontiffs who derived large revenues from the + sale of the Agnus Dei, or priests who derived both wealth and honours from + cures wrought at shrines under their care, or lay dignitaries who had + invested heavily in relics, should favour the development of any science + which undermined their interests.(301) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (301) See Fort's Medical Economy during the Middle Ages, pp. 211-213; +also the Handbooks of Murray and Baedeker for North Germany, and various +histories of medicine passim; also Collin de Plancy and scores of +others. For the discovery that the relics of St. Rosaria at Palermo are +simply the bones of a goat, see Gordon, Life of Buckland, pp. 94-96. +For an account of the Agnes Dei, see Rydberg, pp. 62, 63; and for +"Conception Billets," pp. 64 and 65. For Leo X's tickets, see Hausser +(professor at Heidelberg), Period of Reformation, English translation, +p. 17. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0049" id="link2H_4_0049"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + V. THEOLOGICAL OPPOSITION TO ANATOMICAL STUDIES. + </h2> + <p> + Yet a more serious stumbling-block, hindering the beginnings of modern + medicine and surgery, was a theory regarding the unlawfulness of meddling + with the bodies of the dead. This theory, like so many others which the + Church cherished as peculiarly its own, had really been inherited from the + old pagan civilizations. So strong was it in Egypt that the embalmer was + regarded as accursed; traces of it appear in Greco-Roman life, and hence + it came into the early Church, where it was greatly strengthened by the + addition of perhaps the most noble of mystic ideas—the recognition + of the human body as the temple of the Holy Spirit. Hence Tertullian + denounced the anatomist Herophilus as a butcher, and St. Augustine spoke + of anatomists generally in similar terms. + </p> + <p> + But this nobler conception was alloyed with a medieval superstition even + more effective, when the formula known as the Apostles' Creed had, in its + teachings regarding the resurrection of the body, supplanted the doctrine + laid down by St. Paul. Thence came a dread of mutilating the body in such + a way that some injury might result to its final resurrection at the Last + Day, and additional reasons for hindering dissections in the study of + anatomy. + </p> + <p> + To these arguments against dissection was now added another—one + which may well fill us with amazement. It is the remark of the foremost of + recent English philosophical historians, that of all organizations in + human history the Church of Rome has caused the greatest spilling of + innocent blood. No one conversant with history, even though he admit all + possible extenuating circumstances, and honour the older Church for the + great services which can undoubtedly be claimed for her, can deny this + statement. Strange is it, then, to note that one of the main objections + developed in the Middle Ages against anatomical studies was the maxim that + "the Church abhors the shedding of blood." + </p> + <p> + On this ground, in 1248, the Council of Le Mans forbade surgery to monks. + Many other councils did the same, and at the end of the thirteenth century + came the most serious blow of all; for then it was that Pope Boniface + VIII, without any of that foresight of consequences which might well have + been expected in an infallible teacher, issued a decretal forbidding a + practice which had come into use during the Crusades, namely, the + separation of the flesh from the bones of the dead whose remains it was + desired to carry back to their own country. + </p> + <p> + The idea lying at the bottom of this interdiction was in all probability + that which had inspired Tertullian to make his bitter utterance against + Herophilus; but, be that as it may, it soon came to be considered as + extending to all dissection, and thereby surgery and medicine were + crippled for more than two centuries; it was the worst blow they ever + received, for it impressed upon the mind of the Church the belief that all + dissection is sacrilege, and led to ecclesiastical mandates withdrawing + from the healing art the most thoughtful and cultivated men of the Middle + Ages and giving up surgery to the lowest class of nomadic charlatans. + </p> + <p> + So deeply was this idea rooted in the mind of the universal Church that + for over a thousand years surgery was considered dishonourable: the + greatest monarchs were often unable to secure an ordinary surgical + operation; and it was only in 1406 that a better beginning was made, when + the Emperor Wenzel of Germany ordered that dishonour should no longer + attach to the surgical profession.(302) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (302) As to religious scruples against dissection, and abhorrence of +the Paraschites, or embalmer, see Maspero and Sayce, The Dawn of +Civilization, p. 216. For denunciation of surgery by the Church +authorities, see Sprengel, vol. ii, pp. 432-435; also Fort, pp. 452 et +seq.; and for the reasoning which led the Church to forbid surgery to +priests, see especially Fredault, Histoire de la Medecine, p. 200. As +to the decretal of Boniface VIII, the usual statement is that he forbade +all dissections. While it was undoubtedly construed universally to +prohibit dissections for anatomical purposes, its declared intent was as +stated in the text; that it was constantly construed against anatomical +investigations can not for a moment be denied. This construction is +taken for granted in the great Histoire Litteraire de la France, founded +by the Benedictines, certainly a very high authority as to the main +current of opinion in the Church. For the decretal of Boniface VIII, see +the Corpus Juris Canonici. I have also used the edition of Paris, 1618, +where it may be found on pp. 866, 867. See also, in spite of the special +pleading of Giraldi, the Benedictine Hist. Lit. de la France, tome xvi, +p. 98. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0050" id="link2H_4_0050"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VI. NEW BEGINNINGS OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. + </h2> + <p> + In spite of all these opposing forces, the evolution of medical science + continued, though but slowly. In the second century of the Christian era + Galen had made himself a great authority at Rome, and from Rome had swayed + the medical science of the world: his genius triumphed over the defects of + his method; but, though he gave a powerful impulse to medicine, his + dogmatism stood in its way long afterward. + </p> + <p> + The places where medicine, such as it thus became, could be applied, were + at first mainly the infirmaries of various monasteries, especially the + larger ones of the Benedictine order: these were frequently developed into + hospitals. Many monks devoted themselves to such medical studies as were + permitted, and sundry churchmen and laymen did much to secure and preserve + copies of ancient medical treatises. So, too, in the cathedral schools + established by Charlemagne and others, provision was generally made for + medical teaching; but all this instruction, whether in convents or + schools, was wretchedly poor. It consisted not in developing by individual + thought and experiment the gifts of Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Galen, but + almost entirely in the parrot-like repetition of their writings. + </p> + <p> + But, while the inherited ideas of Church leaders were thus unfavourable to + any proper development of medical science, there were two bodies of men + outside the Church who, though largely fettered by superstition, were far + less so than the monks and students of ecclesiastical schools: these were + the Jews and Mohammedans. The first of these especially had inherited many + useful sanitary and hygienic ideas, which had probably been first evolved + by the Egyptians, and from them transmitted to the modern world mainly + through the sacred books attributed to Moses. + </p> + <p> + The Jewish scholars became especially devoted to medical science. To them + is largely due the building up of the School of Salerno, which we find + flourishing in the tenth century. Judged by our present standards its work + was poor indeed, but compared with other medical instruction of the time + it was vastly superior: it developed hygienic principles especially, and + brought medicine upon a higher plane. + </p> + <p> + Still more important is the rise of the School of Montpellier; this was + due almost entirely to Jewish physicians, and it developed medical studies + to a yet higher point, doing much to create a medical profession worthy of + the name throughout southern Europe. + </p> + <p> + As to the Arabians, we find them from the tenth to the fourteenth century, + especially in Spain, giving much thought to medicine, and to chemistry as + subsidiary to it. About the beginning of the ninth century, when the + greater Christian writers were supporting fetich by theology, Almamon, the + Moslem, declared, "They are the elect of God, his best and most useful + servants, whose lives are devoted to the improvement of their rational + faculties." The influence of Avicenna, the translator of the works of + Aristotle, extended throughout all Europe during the eleventh century. The + Arabians were indeed much fettered by tradition in medical science, but + their translations of Hippocrates and Galen preserved to the world the + best thus far developed in medicine, and still better were their + contributions to pharmacy: these remain of value to the present hour.(303) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (303) For the great services rendered to the development of medicine by +the Jews, see Monteil, Medecine en France, p. 58; also the historians of +medicine generally. For the quotation from Almamon, see Gibbon, vol. +x, p. 42. For the services of both Jews and Arabians, see Bedarride, +Histoire des Juifs, p. 115; also Sismondi, Histoire des Francais, tome +i, p. 191. For the Arabians, especially, see Rosseeuw Saint-Hilaire, +Histoire d'Espagne, Paris, 1844, vol. iii, pp. 191 et seq. For +the tendency of the Mosaic books to insist on hygienic rather than +therapeutical treatment, and its consequences among Jewish physicians, +see Sprengel, but especially Fredault, p.14. +</pre> + <p> + Various Christian laymen also rose above the prevailing theologic + atmosphere far enough to see the importance of promoting scientific + development. First among these we may name the Emperor Charlemagne; he and + his great minister, Alcuin, not only promoted medical studies in the + schools they founded, but also made provision for the establishment of + botanic gardens in which those herbs were especially cultivated which were + supposed to have healing virtues. So, too, in the thirteenth century, the + Emperor Frederick II, though under the ban of the Pope, brought together + in his various journeys, and especially in his crusading expeditions, many + Greek and Arabic manuscripts, and took special pains to have those which + concerned medicine preserved and studied; he also promoted better ideas of + medicine and embodied them in laws. + </p> + <p> + Men of science also rose, in the stricter sense of the word, even in the + centuries under the most complete sway of theological thought and + ecclesiastical power; a science, indeed, alloyed with theology, but still + infolding precious germs. Of these were men like Arnold of Villanova, + Bertrand de Gordon, Albert of Bollstadt, Basil Valentine, Raymond Lully, + and, above all, Roger Bacon; all of whom cultivated sciences subsidiary to + medicine, and in spite of charges of sorcery, with possibilities of + imprisonment and death, kept the torch of knowledge burning, and passed it + on to future generations.(304) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (304) For the progress of sciences subsidiary to medicine even in the +darkest ages, see Fort, pp. 374, 375; also Isensee, Geschichte der +Medicin, pp. 225 et seq.; also Monteil, p. 89; Heller, Geschichte der +Physik, vol. i, bk. 3; also Kopp, Geschichte der Chemie. For Frederick +II and his Medicinal-Gesetz, see Baas, p. 221, but especially Von +Raumer, Geschichte der Hohenstaufen, Leipsic, 1872, vol. iii, p. 259. +</pre> + <p> + From the Church itself, even when the theological atmosphere was most + dense, rose here and there men who persisted in something like scientific + effort. As early as the ninth century, Bertharius, a monk of Monte + Cassino, prepared two manuscript volumes of prescriptions selected from + ancient writers; other monks studied them somewhat, and, during succeeding + ages, scholars like Hugo, Abbot of St. Denis,—Notker, monk of St. + Gall,—Hildegard, Abbess of Rupertsberg,—Milo, Archbishop of + Beneventum,—and John of St. Amand, Canon of Tournay, did something + for medicine as they understood it. Unfortunately, they generally + understood its theory as a mixture of deductions from Scripture with + dogmas from Galen, and its practice as a mixture of incantations with + fetiches. Even Pope Honorius III did something for the establishment of + medical schools; but he did so much more to place ecclesiastical and + theological fetters upon teachers and taught, that the value of his gifts + may well be doubted. All germs of a higher evolution of medicine were for + ages well kept under by the theological spirit. As far back as the sixth + century so great a man as Pope Gregory I showed himself hostile to the + development of this science. In the beginning of the twelfth century the + Council of Rheims interdicted the study of law and physic to monks, and a + multitude of other councils enforced this decree. About the middle of the + same century St. Bernard still complained that monks had too much to do + with medicine; and a few years later we have decretals like those of Pope + Alexander III forbidding monks to study or practise it. For many + generations there appear evidences of a desire among the more broad-minded + churchmen to allow the cultivation of medical science among ecclesiastics: + Popes like Clement III and Sylvester II seem to have favoured this, and we + even hear of an Archbishop of Canterbury skilled in medicine; but in the + beginning of the thirteenth century the Fourth Council of the Lateran + forbade surgical operations to be practised by priests, deacons, and + subdeacons; and some years later Honorius III reiterated this decree and + extended it. In 1243 the Dominican order forbade medical treatises to be + brought into their monasteries, and finally all participation of + ecclesiastics in the science and art of medicine was effectually + prevented.(305) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (305) For statements as to these decrees of the highest Church and +monastic authorities against medicine and surgery, see Sprengel, Baas, +Geschichte der Medicin, p. 204, and elsewhere; also Buckle, Posthumous +Works, vol. ii, p. 567. For a long list of Church dignitaries who +practised a semi-theological medicine in the Middle Ages, see Baas, +pp. 204, 205. For Bertharius, Hildegard, and others mentioned, see also +Sprengel and other historians of medicine. For clandestine study and +practice of medicine by sundry ecclesiastics in spite of the prohibition +by the Church, see Von Raumer, Hohenstaufen, vol. vi, p. 438. For some +remarks on this subject by an eminent and learned ecclesiastic, +see Ricker, O. S. B., professor in the University of Vienna, +Pastoral-Psychiatrie, 1894, pp. 12,13. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0051" id="link2H_4_0051"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VII. THEOLOGICAL DISCOURAGEMENT OF MEDICINE. + </h2> + <p> + While various churchmen, building better than they knew, thus did + something to lay foundations for medical study, the Church authorities, as + a rule, did even more to thwart it among the very men who, had they been + allowed liberty, would have cultivated it to the highest advantage. + </p> + <p> + Then, too, we find cropping out every where the feeling that, since + supernatural means are so abundant, there is something irreligious in + seeking cure by natural means: ever and anon we have appeals to Scripture, + and especially to the case of King Asa, who trusted to physicians rather + than to the priests of Jahveh, and so died. Hence it was that St. Bernard + declared that monks who took medicine were guilty of conduct unbecoming to + religion. Even the School of Salerno was held in aversion by multitudes of + strict churchmen, since it prescribed rules for diet, thereby indicating a + belief that diseases arise from natural causes and not from the malice of + the devil: moreover, in the medical schools Hippocrates was studied, and + he had especially declared that demoniacal possession is "nowise more + divine, nowise more infernal, than any other disease." Hence it was, + doubtless, that the Lateran Council, about the beginning of the thirteenth + century, forbade physicians, under pain of exclusion from the Church, to + undertake medical treatment without calling in ecclesiastical advice. + </p> + <p> + This view was long cherished in the Church, and nearly two hundred and + fifty years later Pope Pius V revived it by renewing the command of Pope + Innocent and enforcing it with penalties. Not only did Pope Pius order + that all physicians before administering treatment should call in "a + physician of the soul," on the ground, as he declares, that "bodily + infirmity frequently arises from sin," but he ordered that, if at the end + of three days the patient had not made confession to a priest, the medical + man should cease his treatment, under pain of being deprived of his right + to practise, and of expulsion from the faculty if he were a professor, and + that every physician and professor of medicine should make oath that he + was strictly fulfilling these conditions. + </p> + <p> + Out of this feeling had grown up another practice, which made the + development of medicine still more difficult—the classing of + scientific men generally with sorcerers and magic-mongers: from this + largely rose the charge of atheism against physicians, which ripened into + a proverb, "Where there are three physicians there are two atheists."(306) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (306) "Ubi sunt tres medici ibi sunt duo athei." For the bull of Pius V, +see the Bullarium Romanum, ed. Gaude, Naples, 1882, tom. vii, pp. 430, +431. +</pre> + <p> + Magic was so common a charge that many physicians seemed to believe it + themselves. In the tenth century Gerbert, afterward known as Pope + Sylvester II, was at once suspected of sorcery when he showed a + disposition to adopt scientific methods; in the eleventh century this + charge nearly cost the life of Constantine Africanus when he broke from + the beaten path of medicine; in the thirteenth, it gave Roger Bacon, one + of the greatest benefactors of mankind, many years of imprisonment, and + nearly brought him to the stake: these cases are typical of very many. + </p> + <p> + Still another charge against physicians who showed a talent for + investigation was that of Mohammedanism and Averroism; and Petrarch + stigmatized Averroists as "men who deny Genesis and bark at Christ."(307) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (307) For Averroes, see Renan, Averroes et l'Averroisme, Paris, 1861, +pp. 327-335. For a perfectly just statement of the only circumstances +which can justify a charge of atheism, see Rev. Dr. Deems, in Popular +Science Monthly, February, 1876. +</pre> + <p> + The effect of this widespread ecclesiastical opposition was, that for many + centuries the study of medicine was relegated mainly to the lowest order + of practitioners. There was, indeed, one orthodox line of medical + evolution during the later Middle Ages: St. Thomas Aquinas insisted that + the forces of the body are independent of its physical organization, and + that therefore these forces are to be studied by the scholastic philosophy + and the theological method, instead of by researches into the structure of + the body; as a result of this, mingled with survivals of various pagan + superstitions, we have in anatomy and physiology such doctrines as the + increase and decrease of the brain with the phases of the moon, the ebb + and flow of human vitality with the tides of the ocean, the use of the + lungs to fan the heart, the function of the liver as the seat of love, and + that of the spleen as the centre of wit. + </p> + <p> + Closely connected with these methods of thought was the doctrine of + signatures. It was reasoned that the Almighty must have set his sign upon + the various means of curing disease which he has provided: hence it was + held that bloodroot, on account of its red juice, is good for the blood; + liverwort, having a leaf like the liver, cures diseases of the liver; + eyebright, being marked with a spot like an eye, cures diseases of the + eyes; celandine, having a yellow juice, cures jaundice; bugloss, + resembling a snake's head, cures snakebite; red flannel, looking like + blood, cures blood-taints, and therefore rheumatism; bear's grease, being + taken from an animal thickly covered with hair, is recommended to persons + fearing baldness.(308) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (308) For a summary of the superstitions which arose under the +theological doctrine of signatures, see Dr. Eccles's admirable little +tract on the Evolution of Medical Science, p. 140; see also Scoffern, +Science and Folk Lore, p. 76. +</pre> + <p> + Still another method evolved by this theological pseudoscience was that of + disgusting the demon with the body which he tormented—hence the + patient was made to swallow or apply to himself various unspeakable + ordures, with such medicines as the livers of toads, the blood of frogs + and rats, fibres of the hangman's rope, and ointment made from the body of + gibbeted criminals. Many of these were survivals of heathen superstitions, + but theologic reasoning wrought into them an orthodox significance. As an + example of this mixture of heathen with Christian magic, we may cite the + following from a medieval medical book as a salve against "nocturnal + goblin visitors": "Take hop plant, wormwood, bishopwort, lupine, + ash-throat, henbane, harewort, viper's bugloss, heathberry plant, + cropleek, garlic, grains of hedgerife, githrife, and fennel. Put these + worts into a vessel, set them under the altar, sing over them nine masses, + boil them in butter and sheep's grease, add much holy salt, strain through + a cloth, throw the worts into running water. If any ill tempting occur to + a man, or an elf or goblin night visitors come, smear his body with this + salve, and put it on his eyes, and cense him with incense, and sign him + frequently with the sign of the cross. His condition will soon be + better."(309) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (309) For a list of unmentionable ordures used in Germany near the end +of the seventeenth century, see Lammert, Volksmedizin und medizinischer +Aberglaube in Bayern, Wurzburg, 1869, p. 34, note. For the English +prescription given, see Cockayne, Leechdoms, Wort-cunning, and +Star-craft of Early England, in the Master of the Rolls' series, +London, 1865, vol. ii, pp. 345 and following. Still another of these +prescriptions given by Cockayne covers three or four octavo pages. For +very full details of this sort of sacred pseudo-science in Germany, with +accounts of survivals of it at the present time, see Wuttke, Prof. der +Theologie in Halle, Der Deutsche Volksaberglaube der Gegenwart, Berlin, +1869, passim. For France, see Rambaud, Histoire de la Civilisation +francaise, pp. 371 et seq. +</pre> + <p> + As to surgery, this same amalgamation of theology with survivals of pagan + beliefs continued to check the evolution of medical science down to the + modern epoch. The nominal hostility of the Church to the shedding of blood + withdrew, as we have seen, from surgical practice the great body of her + educated men; hence surgery remained down to the fifteenth century a + despised profession, its practice continued largely in the hands of + charlatans, and down to a very recent period the name "barber-surgeon" was + a survival of this. In such surgery, the application of various ordures + relieved fractures; the touch of the hangman cured sprains; the breath of + a donkey expelled poison; friction with a dead man's tooth cured + toothache.(310) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (310) On the low estate of surgery during the Middle Ages, see +the histories of medicine already cited, and especially Kotelmann, +Gesundheitspflege im Mittelalter, Hamburg, 1890, pp. 216 et seq. +</pre> + <p> + The enormous development of miracle and fetich cures in the Church + continued during century after century, and here probably lay the main + causes of hostility between the Church on the one hand and the better sort + of physicians on the other; namely, in the fact that the Church supposed + herself in possession of something far better than scientific methods in + medicine. Under the sway of this belief a natural and laudable veneration + for the relics of Christian martyrs was developed more and more into pure + fetichism. + </p> + <p> + Thus the water in which a single hair of a saint had been dipped was used + as a purgative; water in which St. Remy's ring had been dipped cured + fevers; wine in which the bones of a saint had been dipped cured lunacy; + oil from a lamp burning before the tomb of St. Gall cured tumours; St. + Valentine cured epilepsy; St. Christopher, throat diseases; St. Eutropius, + dropsy; St. Ovid, deafness; St. Gervase, rheumatism; St. Apollonia, + toothache; St. Vitus, St. Anthony, and a multitude of other saints, the + maladies which bear their names. Even as late as 1784 we find certain + authorities in Bavaria ordering that any one bitten by a mad dog shall at + once put up prayers at the shrine of St. Hubert, and not waste his time in + any attempts at medical or surgical cure.(311) In the twelfth century we + find a noted cure attempted by causing the invalid to drink water in which + St. Bernard had washed his hands. Flowers which had rested on the tomb of + a saint, when steeped in water, were supposed to be especially efficacious + in various diseases. The pulpit everywhere dwelt with unction on the + reality of fetich cures, and among the choice stories collected by + Archbishop Jacques de Vitry for the use of preachers was one which, + judging from its frequent recurrence in monkish literature, must have sunk + deep into the popular mind: "Two lazy beggars, one blind, the other lame, + try to avoid the relics of St. Martin, borne about in procession, so that + they may not be healed and lose their claim to alms. The blind man takes + the lame man on his shoulders to guide him, but they are caught in the + crowd and healed against their will."(312) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (311) See Baas, p. 614; also Biedermann. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (312) For the efficacy of flowers, see the Bollandist Lives of the +Saints, cited in Fort, p. 279; also pp. 457, 458. For the story of those +unwillingly cured, see the Exempla of Jacques de Vitry, edited by Prof. +T. F. Crane, of Cornell University, London, 1890, pp. 52, 182. +</pre> + <p> + Very important also throughout the Middle Ages were the medical virtues + attributed to saliva. The use of this remedy had early Oriental sanction. + It is clearly found in Egypt. Pliny devotes a considerable part of one of + his chapters to it; Galen approved it; Vespasian, when he visited + Alexandria, is said to have cured a blind man by applying saliva to his + eves; but the great example impressed most forcibly upon the medieval mind + was the use of it ascribed in the fourth Gospel to Jesus himself: thence + it came not only into Church ceremonial, but largely into medical + practice.(313) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (313) As to the use of saliva in medicine, see Story, Castle of St. +Angelo, and Other Essays, London, 1877, pp. 208 and elsewhere. For +Pliny, Galen, and others, see the same, p. 211; see also the book of +Tobit, chap. xi, 2-13. For the case of Vespasian, see Suetonius, Life of +Vespasian; also Tacitus, Historiae, lib. iv, c. 81. For its use by St. +Francis Xavier, see Coleridge, Life and Letters of St. Francis Xavier, +London, 1872. +</pre> + <p> + As the theological atmosphere thickened, nearly every country had its long + list of saints, each with a special power over some one organ or disease. + The clergy, having great influence over the medical schools, + conscientiously mixed this fetich medicine with the beginnings of science. + In the tenth century, even at the School of Salerno, we find that the sick + were cured not only by medicine, but by the relics of St. Matthew and + others. + </p> + <p> + Human nature, too, asserted itself, then as now, by making various pious + cures fashionable for a time and then allowing them to become + unfashionable. Just as we see the relics of St. Cosmo and St. Damian in + great vogue during the early Middle Ages, but out of fashion and without + efficacy afterward, so we find in the thirteenth century that the bones of + St. Louis, having come into fashion, wrought multitudes of cures, while in + the fourteenth, having become unfashionable, they ceased to act, and gave + place for a time to the relics of St. Roch of Montpellier and St. + Catherine of Sienna, which in their turn wrought many cures until they too + became out of date and yielded to other saints. Just so in modern times + the healing miracles of La Salette have lost prestige in some measure, and + those of Lourdes have come into fashion.(314) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (314) For one of these lists of saints curing diseaes, see Pettigrew, +On Superstitions connected with Medicine; for another, see Jacob, +Superstitions Populaires, pp. 96-100; also Rydberg, p. 69; also Maury, +Rambaud, and others. For a comparison of fashions in miracles with +fashions in modern healing agents, see Littre, Medecine et Medecins, pp. +118, 136 and elsewhere; also Sprengel, vol. ii, p. 143. +</pre> + <p> + Even such serious matters as fractures, calculi, and difficult + parturition, in which modern science has achieved some of its greatest + triumphs, were then dealt with by relics; and to this hour the ex votos + hanging at such shrines as those of St. Genevieve at Paris, of St. Antony + at Padua, of the Druid image at Chartres, of the Virgin at Einsiedeln and + Lourdes, of the fountain at La Salette, are survivals of this same + conception of disease and its cure. + </p> + <p> + So, too, with a multitude of sacred pools, streams, and spots of earth. In + Ireland, hardly a parish has not had one such sacred centre; in England + and Scotland there have been many; and as late as 1805 the eminent Dr. + Milner, of the Roman Catholic Church, gave a careful and earnest account + of a miraculous cure wrought at a sacred well in Flintshire. In all parts + of Europe the pious resort to wells and springs continued long after the + close of the Middle Ages, and has not entirely ceased to-day. It is not at + all necessary to suppose intentional deception in the origin and + maintenance of all fetich cures. Although two different judicial + investigations of the modern miracles at La Salette have shown their + origin tainted with fraud, and though the recent restoration of the + Cathedral of Trondhjem has revealed the fact that the healing powers of + the sacred spring which once brought such great revenues to that shrine + were assisted by angelic voices spoken through a tube in the walls, not + unlike the pious machinery discovered in the Temple of Isis at Pompeii, + there is little doubt that the great majority of fountain and even shrine + cures, such as they have been, have resulted from a natural law, and that + belief in them was based on honest argument from Scripture. For the + theological argument which thus stood in the way of science was simply + this: if the Almighty saw fit to raise the dead man who touched the bones + of Elisha, why should he not restore to life the patient who touches at + Cologne the bones of the Wise Men of the East who followed the star of the + Nativity? If Naaman was cured by dipping himself in the waters of the + Jordan, and so many others by going down into the Pool of Siloam, why + should not men still be cured by bathing in pools which men equally holy + with Elisha have consecrated? If one sick man was restored by touching the + garments of St. Paul, why should not another sick man be restored by + touching the seamless coat of Christ at Treves, or the winding-sheet of + Christ at Besancon? And out of all these inquiries came inevitably that + question whose logical answer was especially injurious to the development + of medical science: Why should men seek to build up scientific medicine + and surgery, when relics, pilgrimages, and sacred observances, according + to an overwhelming mass of concurrent testimony, have cured and are curing + hosts of sick folk in all parts of Europe? (315) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (315) For sacred fountains in modern times, see Pettigrew, as above, +p. 42; also Dalyell, Darker Superstitions of Scotland, pp. 82 and +following; also Montalembert, Les Moines d'Occident, tome iii, p. 323, +note. For those in Ireland, with many curious details, see S. C. Hall, +Ireland, its Scenery and Character, London, 1841, vol. i, p. 282, and +passim. For the case in Flintshire, see Authentic Documents relative to +the Miraculous Cure of Winifred White, of the Town of Wolverhampton, at +Holywell, Flintshire, on the 28th of June, 1805, by John Milner, D. D., +Vicar Apostolic, etc., London, 1805. For sacred wells in France, see +Chevart, Histoire de Chartres, vol. i, pp. 84-89, and French local +histories generally. For superstitions attaching to springs in Germany, +see Wuttke, Volksaberglaube, Sections 12 and 356. For one of the most +exquisitely wrought works of modern fiction, showing perfectly the +recent evolution of miraculous powers at a fashionable spring in France, +see Gustave Droz, Autour d'une Source. The reference to the old pious +machinery at Trondhjem is based upon personal observation by the present +writer in August, 1893. +</pre> + <p> + Still another development of the theological spirit, mixed with + professional exclusiveness and mob prejudice, wrought untold injury. Even + to those who had become so far emancipated from allegiance to fetich cures + as to consult physicians, it was forbidden to consult those who, as a + rule, were the best. From a very early period of European history the Jews + had taken the lead in medicine; their share in founding the great schools + of Salerno and Montpellier we have already noted, and in all parts of + Europe we find them acknowledged leaders in the healing art. The Church + authorities, enforcing the spirit of the time, were especially severe + against these benefactors: that men who openly rejected the means of + salvation, and whose souls were undeniably lost, should heal the elect + seemed an insult to Providence; preaching friars denounced them from the + pulpit, and the rulers in state and church, while frequently secretly + consulting them, openly proscribed them. + </p> + <p> + Gregory of Tours tells us of an archdeacon who, having been partially + cured of disease of the eyes by St. Martin, sought further aid from a + Jewish physician, with the result that neither the saint nor the Jew could + help him afterward. Popes Eugene IV, Nicholas V, and Calixtus III + especially forbade Christians to employ them. The Trullanean Council in + the eighth century, the Councils of Beziers and Alby in the thirteenth, + the Councils of Avignon and Salamanca in the fourteenth, the Synod of + Bamberg and the Bishop of Passau in the fifteenth, the Council of Avignon + in the sixteenth, with many others, expressly forbade the faithful to call + Jewish physicians or surgeons; such great preachers as John Geiler and + John Herolt thundered from the pulpit against them and all who consulted + them. As late as the middle of the seventeenth century, when the City + Council of Hall, in Wurtemberg, gave some privileges to a Jewish physician + "on account of his admirable experience and skill," the clergy of the city + joined in a protest, declaring that "it were better to die with Christ + than to be cured by a Jew doctor aided by the devil." Still, in their + extremity, bishops, cardinals, kings, and even popes, insisted on calling + in physicians of the hated race.(316) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (316) For the general subject of the influence of theological idea upon +medicine, see Fort, History of Medical Economy during the Middle +Ages, New York, 1883, chaps. xiii and xviii; also Colin de Plancy, +Dictionnaire des Reliques, passim; also Rambaud, Histoire de la +Civilisation francaise, Paris, 1885, vol. i, chap. xviii; also Sprengel, +vol. ii, p. 345, and elsewhere; also Baas and others. For proofs that +the School of Salerno was not founded by the monks, Benedictine or +other, but by laymen, who left out a faculty of theology from their +organization, see Haeser, Lehrbuch der Geschichte der Medicin, vol. i, +p. 646; also Baas. For a very strong statement that married professors, +women, and Jews were admitted to professional chairs, see Baas, pp. +208 et seq.; also summary by Dr. Payne, article in the Encyc. Brit. +Sprengel's old theory that the school was founded by Benedictines +seems now entirely given up; see Haeser and Bass on the subject; also +Daremberg, La Medecine, p. 133. For the citation from Gregory of Tours, +see his Hist. Francorum, lib. vi. For the eminence of Jewish physicians +and proscription of them, see Beugnot, Les Juifs d'Occident, Paris, +1824, pp. 76-94; also Bedarride, Les Juifs en France, en Italie, et +en Espagne, chaps. v, viii, x, and xiii; also Renouard, Histoire de +la Medecine, Paris, 1846, tome i, p. 439; also especially Lammert, +Volksmedizin, etc., in Bayern, p. 6, note. For Church decrees against +them, see the Acta Conciliorum, ed. Hardouin, vol. x, pp. 1634, 1700, +1870, 1873, etc. For denunciations of them by Geiler and others, see +Kotelmann, Gesundheitspflege im Mittelalter, pp. 194, 195. For a list of +kings and popes who persisted in having Jewish physicians and for other +curious information of the sort, see Prof. Levi of Vercelli, Cristiani +ed Ebrei nel Medio Evo, pp. 200-207; and for a very valuable summary, +see Lecky, History of Rationalism in Europe, vol. ii, pp. 265-271. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0052" id="link2H_4_0052"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VIII. FETICH CURES UNDER PROTESTANTISM.—THE ROYAL TOUCH. + </h2> + <p> + The Reformation made no sudden change in the sacred theory of medicine. + Luther, as is well known, again and again ascribed his own diseases to + "devils' spells," declaring that "Satan produces all the maladies which + afflict mankind, for he is the prince of death," and that "he poisons the + air"; but that "no malady comes from God." From that day down to the faith + cures of Boston, Old Orchard, and among the sect of "Peculiar People" in + our own time, we see the results among Protestants of seeking the cause of + disease in Satanic influence and its cure in fetichism. + </p> + <p> + Yet Luther, with his sturdy common sense, broke away from one belief which + has interfered with the evolution of medicine from the dawn of + Christianity until now. When that troublesome declaimer, Carlstadt, + declared that "whoso falls sick shall use no physic, but commit his case + to God, praying that His will be done," Luther asked, "Do you eat when you + are hungry?" and the answer being in the affirmative, he continued, "Even + so you may use physic, which is God's gift just as meat and drink is, or + whatever else we use for the preservation of life." Hence it was, + doubtless, that the Protestant cities of Germany were more ready than + others to admit anatomical investigation by proper dissections.(317) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (317) For Luther's belief and his answer to Carlstadt, see his Table +Talk, especially in Hazlitt's edition, pp. 250-257; also his letters +passim. For recent "faith cures," see Dr. Buckley's articles on Faith +Healing and Kindred Phenomena, in The Century, 1886. For the greater +readiness of Protestant cities to facilitate dissections, see Toth, +Andreas Vesalius, p. 33. +</pre> + <p> + Perhaps the best-known development of a theological view in the Protestant + Church was that mainly evolved in England out of a French germ of + theological thought—a belief in the efficacy of the royal touch in + sundry diseases, especially epilepsy and scrofula, the latter being + consequently known as the king's evil. This mode of cure began, so far as + history throws light upon it, with Edward the Confessor in the eleventh + century, and came down from reign to reign, passing from the Catholic + saint to Protestant debauchees upon the English throne, with + ever-increasing miraculous efficacy. + </p> + <p> + Testimony to the reality of these cures is overwhelming. As a simple + matter of fact, there are no miracles of healing in the history of the + human race more thoroughly attested than those wrought by the touch of + Henry VIII, Elizabeth, the Stuarts, and especially of that chosen vessel, + Charles II. Though Elizabeth could not bring herself fully to believe in + the reality of these cures, Dr. Tooker, the Queen's chaplain, afterward + Dean of Lichfield, testifies fully of his own knowledge to the cures + wrought by her, as also does William Clowes, the Queen's surgeon. Fuller, + in his Church History, gives an account of a Roman Catholic who was thus + cured by the Queen's touch and converted to Protestantism. Similar + testimony exists as to cures wrought by James I. Charles I also enjoyed + the same power, in spite of the public declaration against its reality by + Parliament. In one case the King saw a patient in the crowd, too far off + to be touched, and simply said, "God bless thee and grant thee thy + desire"; whereupon, it is asserted, the blotches and humours disappeared + from the patient's body and appeared in the bottle of medicine which he + held in his hand; at least so says Dr. John Nicholas, Warden of Winchester + College, who declares this of his own knowledge to be every word of it + true. + </p> + <p> + But the most incontrovertible evidence of this miraculous gift is found in + the case of Charles II, the most thoroughly cynical debauchee who ever sat + on the English throne before the advent of George IV. He touched nearly + one hundred thousand persons, and the outlay for gold medals issued to the + afflicted on these occasions rose in some years as high as ten thousand + pounds. John Brown, surgeon in ordinary to his Majesty and to St. Thomas's + Hospital, and author of many learned works on surgery and anatomy, + published accounts of sixty cures due to the touch of this monarch; and + Sergeant-Surgeon Wiseman devotes an entire book to proving the reality of + these cures, saying, "I myself have been frequent witness to many hundreds + of cures performed by his Majesty's touch alone without any assistance of + chirurgery, and these many of them had tyred out the endeavours of able + chirurgeons before they came thither." Yet it is especially instructive to + note that, while in no other reign were so many people touched for + scrofula, and in none were so many cures vouched for, in no other reign + did so many people die of that disease: the bills of mortality show this + clearly, and the reason doubtless is the general substitution of + supernatural for scientific means of cure. This is but one out of many + examples showing the havoc which a scientific test always makes among + miracles if men allow it to be applied. + </p> + <p> + To James II the same power continued; and if it be said, in the words of + Lord Bacon, that "imagination is next of kin to miracle—a working + faith," something else seems required to account for the testimony of Dr. + Heylin to cures wrought by the royal touch upon babes in their mothers' + arms. Myth-making and marvel-mongering were evidently at work here as in + so many other places, and so great was the fame of these cures that we + find, in the year before James was dethroned, a pauper at Portsmouth, New + Hampshire, petitioning the General Assembly to enable him to make the + voyage to England in order that he may be healed by the royal touch. + </p> + <p> + The change in the royal succession does not seem to have interfered with + the miracle; for, though William III evidently regarded the whole thing as + a superstition, and on one occasion is said to have touched a patient, + saying to him, "God give you better health and more sense," Whiston + assures us that this person was healed, notwithstanding William's + incredulity. + </p> + <p> + As to Queen Anne, Dr. Daniel Turner, in his Art of Surgery, relates that + several cases of scrofula which had been unsuccessfully treated by himself + and Dr. Charles Bernard, sergeant-surgeon to her Majesty, yielded + afterward to the efficacy of the Queen's touch. Naturally does Collier, in + his Ecclesiastical History, say regarding these cases that to dispute them + "is to come to the extreme of scepticism, to deny our senses and be + incredulous even to ridiculousness." Testimony to the reality of these + cures is indeed overwhelming, and a multitude of most sober scholars, + divines, and doctors of medicine declared the evidence absolutely + convincing. That the Church of England accepted the doctrine of the royal + touch is witnessed by the special service provided in the Prayer-Book of + that period for occasions when the King exercised this gift. The ceremony + was conducted with great solemnity and pomp: during the reading of the + service and the laying on of the King's hands, the attendant bishop or + priest recited the words, "They shall lay their hands on the sick, and + they shall recover"; afterward came special prayers, the Epistle and + Gospel, with the blessing, and finally his Majesty washed his royal hands + in golden vessels which high noblemen held for him. + </p> + <p> + In France, too, the royal touch continued, with similar testimony to its + efficacy. On a certain Easter Sunday, that pious king, Louis XIV, touched + about sixteen hundred persons at Versailles. + </p> + <p> + This curative power was, then, acknowledged far and wide, by Catholics and + Protestants alike, upon the Continent, in Great Britain, and in America; + and it descended not only in spite of the transition of the English kings + from Catholicism to Protestantism, but in spite of the transition from the + legitimate sovereignty of the Stuarts to the illegitimate succession of + the House of Orange. And yet, within a few years after the whole world + held this belief, it was dead; it had shrivelled away in the growing + scientific light at the dawn of the eighteenth century.(318) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (318) For the royal touch, see Becket, Free and Impartial Inquiry into +the Antiquity and Efficacy of Touching for the King's Evil, 1772, cited +in Pettigrew, p. 128, and elsewhere; also Scoffern, Science and Folk +Lore, London, 1870, pp. 413 and following; also Adams, The Healing +Art, London, 1887, vol. i, pp. 53-60; and especially Lecky, History of +European Morals, vol. i, chapter on The Conversion of Rome; also his +History of England in the Eighteenth Century, vol. i, chap. i. For +curious details regarding the mode of conducting the ceremony, see +Evelyn's Diary; also Lecky, as above. For the royal touch in France, and +for a claim to its possession in feudal times by certain noble families, +see Rambaud, Hist. de la Civ. francaise, p. 375. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0053" id="link2H_4_0053"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IX. THE SCIENTIFIC STRUGGLE FOR ANATOMY. + </h2> + <p> + We may now take up the evolution of medical science out of the medieval + view and its modern survivals. All through the Middle Ages, as we have + seen, some few laymen and ecclesiastics here and there, braving the edicts + of the Church and popular superstition, persisted in medical study and + practice: this was especially seen at the greater universities, which had + become somewhat emancipated from ecclesiastical control. In the thirteenth + century the University of Paris gave a strong impulse to the teaching of + medicine, and in that and the following century we begin to find the first + intelligible reports of medical cases since the coming in of Christianity. + </p> + <p> + In the thirteenth century also the arch-enemy of the papacy, the Emperor + Frederick II, showed his free-thinking tendencies by granting, from time + to time, permissions to dissect the human subject. In the centuries + following, sundry other monarchs timidly followed his example: thus John + of Aragon, in 1391, gave to the University of Lerida the privilege of + dissecting one dead criminal every three years.(319) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (319) For the promotion of medical science and practice, especially in +the thirteenth century, by the universities, see Baas, pp. 222-224. +</pre> + <p> + During the fifteenth century and the earlier years of the sixteenth the + revival of learning, the invention of printing, and the great voyages of + discovery gave a new impulse to thought, and in this medical science + shared: the old theological way of thinking was greatly questioned, and + gave place in many quarters to a different way of looking at the universe. + </p> + <p> + In the sixteenth century Paracelsus appears—a great genius, doing + much to develop medicine beyond the reach of sacred and scholastic + tradition, though still fettered by many superstitions. More and more, in + spite of theological dogmas, came a renewal of anatomical studies by + dissection of the human subject. The practice of the old Alexandrian + School was thus resumed. Mundinus, Professor of Medicine at Bologna early + in the fourteenth century, dared use the human subject occasionally in his + lectures; but finally came a far greater champion of scientific truth, + Andreas Vesalius, founder of the modern science of anatomy. The battle + waged by this man is one of the glories of our race. + </p> + <p> + From the outset Vesalius proved himself a master. In the search for real + knowledge he risked the most terrible dangers, and especially the charge + of sacrilege, founded upon the teachings of the Church for ages. As we + have seen, even such men in the early Church as Tertullian and St. + Augustine held anatomy in abhorrence, and the decretal of Pope Boniface + VIII was universally construed as forbidding all dissection, and as + threatening excommunication against those practising it. Through this + sacred conventionalism Vesalius broke without fear; despite ecclesiastical + censure, great opposition in his own profession, and popular fury, he + studied his science by the only method that could give useful results. No + peril daunted him. To secure material for his investigations, he haunted + gibbets and charnel-houses, braving the fires of the Inquisition and the + virus of the plague. First of all men he began to place the science of + human anatomy on its solid modern foundations—on careful examination + and observation of the human body: this was his first great sin, and it + was soon aggravated by one considered even greater. + </p> + <p> + Perhaps the most unfortunate thing that has ever been done for + Christianity is the tying it to forms of science which are doomed and + gradually sinking. Just as, in the time of Roger Bacon, excellent men + devoted all their energies to binding Christianity to Aristotle; just as, + in the time of Reuchlin and Erasmus, they insisted on binding Christianity + to Thomas Aquinas; so, in the time of Vesalius, such men made every effort + to link Christianity to Galen. The cry has been the same in all ages; it + is the same which we hear in this age for curbing scientific studies: the + cry for what is called "sound learning." Whether standing for Aristotle + against Bacon, or for Aquinas against Erasmus, or for Galen against + Vesalius, the cry is always for "sound learning": the idea always has been + that the older studies are "SAFE." + </p> + <p> + At twenty-eight years of age Vesalius gave to the world his great work on + human anatomy. With it ended the old and began the new; its researches, by + their thoroughness, were a triumph of science; its illustrations, by their + fidelity, were a triumph of art. + </p> + <p> + To shield himself, as far as possible, in the battle which he foresaw must + come, Vesalius dedicated the work to the Emperor Charles V, and in his + preface he argues for his method, and against the parrot repetitions of + the mediaeval text-books; he also condemns the wretched anatomical + preparations and specimens made by physicians who utterly refused to + advance beyond the ancient master. The parrot-like repeaters of Galen gave + battle at once. After the manner of their time their first missiles were + epithets; and, the vast arsenal of these having been exhausted, they began + to use sharper weapons—weapons theologic. + </p> + <p> + In this case there were especial reasons why the theological authorities + felt called upon to intervene. First, there was the old idea prevailing in + the Church that the dissection of the human body is forbidden to + Christians: this was used with great force against Vesalius, but he at + first gained a temporary victory; for, a conference of divines having been + asked to decide whether dissection of the human body is sacrilege, gave a + decision in the negative. + </p> + <p> + The reason was simple: the great Emperor Charles V had made Vesalius his + physician and could not spare him; but, on the accession of Philip II to + the throne of Spain and the Netherlands, the whole scene changed. Vesalius + now complained that in Spain he could not obtain even a human skull for + his anatomical investigations: the medical and theological reactionists + had their way, and to all appearance they have, as a rule, had it in Spain + ever since. As late as the last years of the eighteenth century an + observant English traveller found that there were no dissections before + medical classes in the Spanish universities, and that the doctrine of the + circulation of the blood was still denied, more than a century and a half + after Sarpi and Harvey had proved it. + </p> + <p> + Another theological idea barred the path of Vesalius. Throughout the + Middle Ages it was believed that there exists in man a bone imponderable, + incorruptible, incombustible—the necessary nucleus of the + resurrection body. Belief in a resurrection of the physical body, despite + St. Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians, had been incorporated into the + formula evolved during the early Christian centuries and known as the + Apostles' Creed, and was held throughout Christendom, "always, everywhere, + and by all." This hypothetical bone was therefore held in great + veneration, and many anatomists sought to discover it; but Vesalius, + revealing so much else, did not find it. He contented himself with saying + that he left the question regarding the existence of such a bone to the + theologians. He could not lie; he did not wish to fight the Inquisition; + and thus he fell under suspicion. + </p> + <p> + The strength of this theological point may be judged from the fact that no + less eminent a surgeon than Riolan consulted the executioner to find out + whether, when he burned a criminal, all the parts were consumed; and only + then was the answer received which fatally undermined this superstition. + Yet, in 1689 we find it still lingering in France, stimulating opposition + in the Church to dissection. Even as late as the eighteenth century, + Bernouilli having shown that the living human body constantly undergoes a + series of changes, so that all its particles are renewed in a given number + of years, so much ill feeling was drawn upon him, from theologians, who + saw in this statement danger to the doctrine of the resurrection of the + body, that for the sake of peace he struck out his argument on this + subject from his collected works.(320) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (320) For permissions to dissect the human subject, given here and there +during the Middle Ages, see Roth's Andreas Vesalius, Berlin, 1892, pp. +3, 13 et seq. For religious antipathies as a factor in the persecution +of Vesalius, see the biographies by Boerhaave and Albinos, 1725; +Burggraeve's Etudes, 1841; also Haeser, Kingsley, and the latest +and most thorough of all, Roth, as above. Even Goethals, despite the +timidity natural to a city librarian in a town like Brussels, in which +clerical power is strong and relentless, feels obliged to confess that +there was a certain admixture of religious hatred in the treatment +of Vesalius. See his Notice Biographique sur Andre Vesale. For the +resurrection bones, see Roth, as above, pp. 154, 155, and notes. For +Vesalius, see especially Portal, Hist. de l'Anatomie et de la Chirurgie, +Paris, 1770, tome i, p. 407. For neglect of dissection and opposition +to Harvey's discovery in Spain, see Townsend's Travels, edition of 1792, +cited in Buckle, History of Civilization in England, vol. ii, pp. 74, +75. Also Henry Morley, in his Clement Marot, and Other Essays. For +Bernouilli and his trouble with the theologians, see Wolf, Biographien +zur Culturgeschichte der Schweiz, vol. ii, p. 95. How different +Mundinus's practice of dissection was from that of Vesalius may be seen +by Cuvier's careful statement that the entire number of dissections by +the former was three; the usual statement is that there were but two. +See Cuvier, Hist. des Sci. Nat., tome ii, p. 7; also Sprengel, Fredault, +Hallam, and Littre. Also Whewell, Hist. of the Inductive Sciences, vol. +iii, p. 328; also, for a very full statement regarding the agency of +Mundinus in the progress of Anatomy, see Portal, vol. i, pp. 209-216. +</pre> + <p> + Still other encroachments upon the theological view were made by the new + school of anatomists, and especially by Vesalius. During the Middle Ages + there had been developed various theological doctrines regarding the human + body; these were based upon arguments showing what the body OUGHT TO BE, + and naturally, when anatomical science showed what it IS, these doctrines + fell. An example of such popular theological reasoning is seen in a + widespread belief of the twelfth century, that, during the year in which + the cross of Christ was captured by Saladin, children, instead of having + thirty or thirty-two teeth as before, had twenty or twenty-two. So, too, + in Vesalius's time another doctrine of this sort was dominant: it had long + been held that Eve, having been made by the Almighty from a rib taken out + of Adam's side, there must be one rib fewer on one side of every man than + on the other. This creation of Eve was a favourite subject with sculptors + and painters, from Giotto, who carved it upon his beautiful Campanile at + Florence, to the illuminators of missals, and even to those who + illustrated Bibles and religious books in the first years after the + invention of printing; but Vesalius and the anatomists who followed him + put an end among thoughtful men to this belief in the missing rib, and in + doing this dealt a blow at much else in the sacred theory. Naturally, all + these considerations brought the forces of ecclesiasticism against the + innovators in anatomy.(321) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (321) As to the supposed change in the number of teeth, see the Gesta +Philippi Augusti Francorum Regis,... descripta a magistro Rigardo, 1219, +edited by Father Francois Duchesne, in Histories Francorum Scriptores, +tom. v, Paris, 1649, p. 24. For representations of Adam created by the +Almighty out of a pile of dust, and of Eve created from a rib of Adam, +see the earlier illustrations in the Nuremberg Chronicle. As to the +relation of anatomy to theology as regards to Adam's rib, see Roth, pp. +154, 155. +</pre> + <p> + A new weapon was now forged: Vesalius was charged with dissecting a living + man, and, either from direct persecution, as the great majority of authors + assert, or from indirect influences, as the recent apologists for Philip + II admit, he became a wanderer: on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, + apparently undertaken to atone for his sin, he was shipwrecked, and in the + prime of his life and strength he was lost to the world. + </p> + <p> + And yet not lost. In this century a great painter has again given him to + us. By the magic of Hamann's pencil Vesalius again stands on earth, and we + look once more into his cell. Its windows and doors, bolted and barred + within, betoken the storm of bigotry which rages without; the crucifix, + toward which he turns his eyes, symbolizes the spirit in which he labours; + the corpse of the plague-stricken beneath his hand ceases to be repulsive; + his very soul seems to send forth rays from the canvas, which strengthen + us for the good fight in this age.(322) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (322) The original painting of Vesalius at work in his cell, by Hamann, +is now at Cornell University. +</pre> + <p> + His death was hastened, if not caused, by men who conscientiously supposed + that he was injuring religion: his poor, blind foes aided in destroying + one of religion's greatest apostles. What was his influence on religion? + He substituted, for the repetition of worn-out theories, a conscientious + and reverent search into the works of the great Power giving life to the + universe; he substituted, for representations of the human structure + pitiful and unreal, representations revealing truths most helpful to the + whole human race. + </p> + <p> + The death of this champion seems to have virtually ended the contest. + Licenses to dissect soon began to be given by sundry popes to + universities, and were renewed at intervals of from three to four years, + until the Reformation set in motion trains of thought which did much to + release science from this yoke.(323) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (323) For a curious example of weapons drawn from Galen and used against +Vesalius, see Lewes, Life of Goethe, p. 343, note. For proofs that I +have not overestimated Vesalius, see Portal, ubi supra. Portal speaks of +him as "le genie le plus droit qu'eut l'Europe"; and again, "Vesale me +parait un des plus grands hommes qui ait existe." For the charge +that anatomists dissected living men—against men of science before +Vesalius's time—see Littre's chapter on Anatomy. For the increased +liberty given anatomy by the Reformation, see Roth's Vesalius, p. 33. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0054" id="link2H_4_0054"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + X. THEOLOGICAL OPPOSITION TO INOCULATION, VACCINATION, AND THE USE OF + </h2> + <p> + ANAESTHETICS. + </p> + <p> + I hasten now to one of the most singular struggles of medical science + during modern times. Early in the last century Boyer presented inoculation + as a preventive of smallpox in France, and thoughtful physicians in + England, inspired by Lady Montagu and Maitland, followed his example. + Ultra-conservatives in medicine took fright at once on both sides of the + Channel, and theology was soon finding profound reasons against the new + practice. The French theologians of the Sorbonne solemnly condemned it; + the English theologians were most loudly represented by the Rev. Edward + Massey, who in 1772 preached and published a sermon entitled The Dangerous + and Sinful Practice of Inoculation. In this he declared that Job's + distemper was probably confluent smallpox; that he had been inoculated + doubtless by the devil; that diseases are sent by Providence for the + punishment of sin; and that the proposed attempt to prevent them is "a + diabolical operation." Not less vigorous was the sermon of the Rev. Mr. + Delafaye, entitled Inoculation an Indefensible Practice. This struggle + went on for thirty years. It is a pleasure to note some churchmen—and + among them Madox, Bishop of Worcester—giving battle on the side of + right reason; but as late as 1753 we have a noted rector at Canterbury + denouncing inoculation from his pulpit in the primatial city, and many of + his brethren following his example. + </p> + <p> + The same opposition was vigorous in Protestant Scotland. A large body of + ministers joined in denouncing the new practice as "flying in the face of + Providence," and "endeavouring to baffle a Divine judgment." + </p> + <p> + On our own side of the ocean, also, this question had to be fought out. + About the year 1721 Dr. Zabdiel Boylston, a physician in Boston, made an + experiment in inoculation, one of his first subjects being his own son. He + at once encountered bitter hostility, so that the selectmen of the city + forbade him to repeat the experiment. Foremost among his opponents was Dr. + Douglas, a Scotch physician, supported by the medical profession and the + newspapers. The violence of the opposing party knew no bounds; they + insisted that inoculation was "poisoning," and they urged the authorities + to try Dr. Boylston for murder. Having thus settled his case for this + world, they proceeded to settle it for the next, insisting that "for a man + to infect a family in the morning with smallpox and to pray to God in the + evening against the disease is blasphemy"; that the smallpox is "a + judgment of God on the sins of the people," and that "to avert it is but + to provoke him more"; that inoculation is "an encroachment on the + prerogatives of Jehovah, whose right it is to wound and smite." Among the + mass of scriptural texts most remote from any possible bearing on the + subject one was employed which was equally cogent against any use of + healing means in any disease—the words of Hosea: "He hath torn, and + he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up." + </p> + <p> + So bitter was this opposition that Dr. Boylston's life was in danger; it + was considered unsafe for him to be out of his house in the evening; a + lighted grenade was even thrown into the house of Cotton Mather, who had + favoured the new practice, and had sheltered another clergyman who had + submitted himself to it. + </p> + <p> + To the honour of the Puritan clergy of New England, it should be said that + many of them were Boylston's strongest supporters. Increase and Cotton + Mather had been among the first to move in favour of inoculation, the + latter having called Boylston's attention to it; and at the very crisis of + affairs six of the leading clergymen of Boston threw their influence on + Boylston's side and shared the obloquy brought upon him. Although the + gainsayers were not slow to fling into the faces of the Mathers their + action regarding witchcraft, urging that their credulity in that matter + argued credulity in this, they persevered, and among the many services + rendered by the clergymen of New England to their country this ought + certainly to be remembered; for these men had to withstand, shoulder to + shoulder with Boylston and Benjamin Franklin, the same weapons which were + hurled at the supporters of inoculation in Europe—charges of + "unfaithfulness to the revealed law of God." + </p> + <p> + The facts were soon very strong against the gainsayers: within a year or + two after the first experiment nearly three hundred persons had been + inoculated by Boylston in Boston and neighbouring towns, and out of these + only six had died; whereas, during the same period, out of nearly six + thousand persons who had taken smallpox naturally, and had received only + the usual medical treatment, nearly one thousand had died. Yet even here + the gainsayers did not despair, and, when obliged to confess the success + of inoculation, they simply fell back upon a new argument, and answered: + "It was good that Satan should be dispossessed of his habitation which he + had taken up in men in our Lord's day, but it was not lawful that the + children of the Pharisees should cast him out by the help of Beelzebub. We + must always have an eye to the matter of what we do as well as the result, + if we intend to keep a good conscience toward God." But the facts were too + strong; the new practice made its way in the New World as in the Old, + though bitter opposition continued, and in no small degree on vague + scriptural grounds, for more than twenty years longer.(324) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (324) For the general subject, see Sprengel, Histoire de la Medecine, +vol. vi, pp. 39-80. For the opposition of the Paris faculty of Theology +to inoculation, see the Journal de Barbier, vol. vi, p. 294; also the +Correspondance de Grimm et Diderot, vol. iii, pp. 259 et seq. For bitter +denunciations of inoculation by the English clergy, and for the noble +stand against them by Madox, see Baron, Life of Jenner, vol. i, pp. 231, +232, and vol. ii, pp. 39, 40. For the strenuous opposition of the same +clergy, see Weld, History of the Royal Society, vol. i, p. 464, note; +also, for its comical side, see Nichol's Literary Illustrations, vol. +v, p. 800. For the same matter in Scotland, see Lecky's History of the +Eighteenth Century, vol. ii, p. 83. For New England, see Green, History +of Medicine in Massachusetts, Boston, 1881, pp. 58 et seq; also chapter +x of the Memorial History of Boston, by the same author and O. W. +Holmes. For a letter of Dr. Franklin's, see Massachusetts Historical +Collections, second series, vol. vii, p. 17. Several most curious +publications issued during the heat of the inoculation controversy have +been kindly placed in my hands by the librarians of Harvard College and +of the Massachusetts Historical Society, among them A Reply to Increase +Mather, by John Williams, Boston, printed by J. Franklin, 1721, from +which the above scriptural arguments are cited. For the terrible +virulence of the smallpox in New England up to the introduction of the +inoculation, see McMaster, History of the People of the United States, +first edition, vol. i, p. 30. +</pre> + <p> + The steady evolution of scientific medicine brings us next to Jenner's + discovery of vaccination. Here, too, sundry vague survivals of theological + ideas caused many of the clergy to side with retrograde physicians. + Perhaps the most virulent of Jenner's enemies was one of his professional + brethren, Dr. Moseley, who placed on the title-page of his book, Lues + Bovilla, the motto, referring to Jenner and his followers, "Father, + forgive them, for they know not what they do": this book of Dr. Moseley + was especially indorsed by the Bishop of Dromore. In 1798 an + Anti-vaccination Society was formed by physicians and clergymen, who + called on the people of Boston to suppress vaccination, as "bidding + defiance to Heaven itself, even to the will of God," and declared that + "the law of God prohibits the practice." As late as 1803 the Rev. Dr. + Ramsden thundered against vaccination in a sermon before the University of + Cambridge, mingling texts of Scripture with calumnies against Jenner; but + Plumptre and the Rev. Rowland Hill in England, Waterhouse in America, + Thouret in France, Sacco in Italy, and a host of other good men and true, + pressed forward, and at last science, humanity, and right reason gained + the victory. Most striking results quickly followed. The diminution in the + number of deaths from the terrible scourge was amazing. In Berlin, during + the eight years following 1783, over four thousand children died of the + smallpox; while during the eight years following 1814, after vaccination + had been largely adopted, out of a larger number of deaths there were but + five hundred and thirty-five from this disease. In Wurtemberg, during the + twenty-four years following 1772, one in thirteen of all the children died + of smallpox, while during the eleven years after 1822 there died of it + only one in sixteen hundred. In Copenhagen, during twelve years before the + introduction of vaccination, fifty-five hundred persons died of smallpox, + and during the sixteen years after its introduction only one hundred and + fifty-eight persons died of it throughout all Denmark. In Vienna, where + the average yearly mortality from this disease had been over eight + hundred, it was steadily and rapidly reduced, until in 1803 it had fallen + to less than thirty; and in London, formerly so afflicted by this scourge, + out of all her inhabitants there died of it in 1890 but one. As to the + world at large, the result is summed up by one of the most honoured + English physicians of our time, in the declaration that "Jenner has saved, + is now saving, and will continue to save in all coming ages, more lives in + one generation than were destroyed in all the wars of Napoleon." + </p> + <p> + It will have been noticed by those who have read this history thus far + that the record of the Church generally was far more honourable in this + struggle than in many which preceded it: the reason is not difficult to + find; the decline of theology enured to the advantage of religion, and + religion gave powerful aid to science. + </p> + <p> + Yet there have remained some survivals both in Protestantism and in + Catholicism which may be regarded with curiosity. A small body of + perversely ingenious minds in the medical profession in England have found + a few ardent allies among the less intellectual clergy. The Rev. Mr. + Rothery and the Rev. Mr. Allen, of the Primitive Methodists, have for + sundry vague theological reasons especially distinguished themselves by + opposition to compulsory vaccination; but it is only just to say that the + great body of the English clergy have for a long time taken the better + view. + </p> + <p> + Far more painful has been the recent history of the other great branch of + the Christian Church—a history developed where it might have been + least expected: the recent annals of the world hardly present a more + striking antithesis between Religion and Theology. + </p> + <p> + On the religious side few things in the history of the Roman Church have + been more beautiful than the conduct of its clergy in Canada during the + great outbreak of ship-fever among immigrants at Montreal about the middle + of the present century. Day and night the Catholic priesthood of that city + ministered fearlessly to those victims of sanitary ignorance; fear of + suffering and death could not drive these ministers from their work; they + laid down their lives cheerfully while carrying comfort to the poorest and + most ignorant of our kind: such was the record of their religion. But in + 1885 a record was made by their theology. In that year the smallpox broke + out with great virulence in Montreal. The Protestant population escaped + almost entirely by vaccination; but multitudes of their Catholic + fellow-citizens, under some vague survival of the old orthodox ideas, + refused vaccination; and suffered fearfully. When at last the plague + became so serious that travel and trade fell off greatly and quarantine + began to be established in neighbouring cities, an effort was made to + enforce compulsory vaccination. The result was, that large numbers of the + Catholic working population resisted and even threatened bloodshed. The + clergy at first tolerated and even encouraged this conduct: the Abbe + Filiatrault, priest of St. James's Church, declared in a sermon that, "if + we are afflicted with smallpox, it is because we had a carnival last + winter, feasting the flesh, which has offended the Lord; it is to punish + our pride that God has sent us smallpox." The clerical press went further: + the Etendard exhorted the faithful to take up arms rather than submit to + vaccination, and at least one of the secular papers was forced to pander + to the same sentiment. The Board of Health struggled against this + superstition, and addressed a circular to the Catholic clergy, imploring + them to recommend vaccination; but, though two or three complied with this + request, the great majority were either silent or openly hostile. The + Oblate Fathers, whose church was situated in the very heart of the + infected district, continued to denounce vaccination; the faithful were + exhorted to rely on devotional exercises of various sorts; under the + sanction of the hierarchy a great procession was ordered with a solemn + appeal to the Virgin, and the use of the rosary was carefully specified. + </p> + <p> + Meantime, the disease, which had nearly died out among the Protestants, + raged with ever-increasing virulence among the Catholics; and, the truth + becoming more and more clear, even to the most devout, proper measures + were at last enforced and the plague was stayed, though not until there + had been a fearful waste of life among these simple-hearted believers, and + germs of scepticism planted in the hearts of their children which will + bear fruit for generations to come.(325) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (325) For the opposition of concientious men to vaccination in England, +see Baron, Life of Jenner, as above; also vol. ii, p. 43; also Dun's +Life of Simpson, London, 1873, pp. 248, 249; also Works of Sir J. Y. +Simpson, vol. ii. For a multitude of statistics ahowing the diminution +of smallpox after the introduction of vaccination, see Russell, p. +380. For the striking record in London for 1890, see an article in the +Edinburgh review for January, 1891. The general statement referred to +was made in a speech some years since by Sir Spencer Wells. For recent +scattered cases of feeble opposition to vaccination by Protestant +ministers, see William White, The Great Delusion, London, 1885, passim. +For opposition of the Roman Catholic clergy and peasantry in Canada +to vaccination during the smallpox plague of 1885, see the English, +Canadian, and American newspapers, but especially the very temperate and +accurate correspondence in the New York Evening Post during September +and October of that year. +</pre> + <p> + Another class of cases in which the theologic spirit has allied itself + with the retrograde party in medical science is found in the history of + certain remedial agents; and first may be named cocaine. As early as the + middle of the sixteenth century the value of coca had been discovered in + South America; the natives of Peru prized it highly, and two eminent + Jesuits, Joseph Acosta and Antonio Julian, were converted to this view. + But the conservative spirit in the Church was too strong; in 1567 the + Second Council of Lima, consisting of bishops from all parts of South + America, condemned it, and two years later came a royal decree declaring + that "the notions entertained by the natives regarding it are an illusion + of the devil." + </p> + <p> + As a pendant to this singular mistake on the part of the older Church came + another committed by many Protestants. In the early years of the + seventeenth century the Jesuit missionaries in South America learned from + the natives the value of the so-called Peruvian bark in the treatment of + ague; and in 1638, the Countess of Cinchon, Regent of Peru, having derived + great benefit from the new remedy, it was introduced into Europe. Although + its alkaloid, quinine, is perhaps the nearest approach to a medical + specific, and has diminished the death rate in certain regions to an + amazing extent, its introduction was bitterly opposed by many conservative + members of the medical profession, and in this opposition large numbers of + ultra-Protestants joined, out of hostility to the Roman Church. In the + heat of sectarian feeling the new remedy was stigmatized as "an invention + of the devil"; and so strong was this opposition that it was not + introduced into England until 1653, and even then its use was long held + back, owing mainly to anti-Catholic feeling. + </p> + <p> + What the theological method on the ultra-Protestant side could do to help + the world at this very time is seen in the fact that, while this struggle + was going on, Hoffmann was attempting to give a scientific theory of the + action of the devil in causing Job's boils. This effort at a + quasi-scientific explanation which should satisfy the theological spirit, + comical as it at first seems, is really worthy of serious notice, because + it must be considered as the beginning of that inevitable effort at + compromise which we see in the history of every science when it begins to + appear triumphant.(326) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (326) For the opposition of the South American Church authorities to +the introduction of coca, etc., see Martindale, Coca, Cocaine, and its +Salts, London, 1886, p. 7. As to theological and sectarian resistance to +quinine, see Russell, pp. 194, 253; also Eccles; also Meryon, History of +Medicine, London, 1861, vol. i, p. 74, note. For the great decrease in +deaths by fever after the use of Peruvian bark began, see statistical +tables given in Russell, p. 252; and for Hoffmann's attempt at +compromise, ibid., p. 294. +</pre> + <p> + But I pass to a typical conflict in our days, and in a Protestant country. + In 1847, James Young Simpson, a Scotch physician, who afterward rose to + the highest eminence in his profession, having advocated the use of + anaesthetics in obstetrical cases, was immediately met by a storm of + opposition. This hostility flowed from an ancient and time-honoured belief + in Scotland. As far back as the year 1591, Eufame Macalyane, a lady of + rank, being charged with seeking the aid of Agnes Sampson for the relief + of pain at the time of the birth of her two sons, was burned alive on the + Castle Hill of Edinburgh; and this old theological view persisted even to + the middle of the nineteenth century. From pulpit after pulpit Simpson's + use of chloroform was denounced as impious and contrary to Holy Writ; + texts were cited abundantly, the ordinary declaration being that to use + chloroform was "to avoid one part of the primeval curse on woman." Simpson + wrote pamphlet after pamphlet to defend the blessing which he brought into + use; but he seemed about to be overcome, when he seized a new weapon, + probably the most absurd by which a great cause was ever won: "My + opponents forget," he said, "the twenty-first verse of the second chapter + of Genesis; it is the record of the first surgical operation ever + performed, and that text proves that the Maker of the universe, before he + took the rib from Adam's side for the creation of Eve, caused a deep sleep + to fall upon Adam." This was a stunning blow, but it did not entirely kill + the opposition; they had strength left to maintain that the "deep sleep of + Adam took place before the introduction of pain into the world—in a + state of innocence." But now a new champion intervened—Thomas + Chalmers: with a few pungent arguments from his pulpit he scattered the + enemy forever, and the greatest battle of science against suffering was + won. This victory was won not less for religion. Wisely did those who + raised the monument at Boston to one of the discoverers of anaesthetics + inscribe upon its pedestal the words from our sacred text, "This also + cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and + excellent in working."(327) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (327) For the case of Eufame Macalyane, se Dalyell, Darker Superstitions +of Scotland, pp. 130, 133. For the contest of Simpson with Scotch +ecclesiatical authorities, see Duns, Life of Sir J. Y. Simpson, London, +1873, pp. 215-222, and 256-260. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0055" id="link2H_4_0055"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XI. FINAL BREAKING AWAY OF THE THEOLOGICAL THEORY IN MEDICINE. + </h2> + <p> + While this development of history was going on, the central idea on which + the whole theologic view rested—the idea of diseases as resulting + from the wrath of God or malice of Satan—was steadily weakened; and, + out of the many things which show this, one may be selected as indicating + the drift of thought among theologians themselves. + </p> + <p> + Toward the end of the eighteenth century the most eminent divines of the + American branch of the Anglican Church framed their Book of Common Prayer. + Abounding as it does in evidences of their wisdom and piety, few things + are more noteworthy than a change made in the exhortation to the faithful + to present themselves at the communion. While, in the old form laid down + in the English Prayer Book, the minister was required to warn his flock + not "to kindle God's wrath" or "provoke him to plague us with divers + diseases and sundry kinds of death," from the American form all this and + more of similar import in various services was left out. + </p> + <p> + Since that day progress in medical science has been rapid indeed, and at + no period more so than during the last half of the nineteenth century. + </p> + <p> + The theological view of disease has steadily faded, and the theological + hold upon medical education has been almost entirely relaxed. In three + great fields, especially, discoveries have been made which have done much + to disperse the atmosphere of miracle. First, there has come knowledge + regarding the relation between imagination and medicine, which, though + still defective, is of great importance. This relation has been noted + during the whole history of the science. When the soldiers of the Prince + of Orange, at the siege of Breda in 1625, were dying of scurvy by scores, + he sent to the physicians "two or three small vials filled with a + decoction of camomile, wormwood, and camphor, gave out that it was a very + rare and precious medicine—a medicine of such virtue that two or + three drops sufficed to impregnate a gallon of water, and that it had been + obtained from the East with great difficulty and danger." This statement, + made with much solemnity, deeply impressed the soldiers; they took the + medicine eagerly, and great numbers recovered rapidly. Again, two + centuries later, young Humphry Davy, being employed to apply the bulb of + the thermometer to the tongues of certain patients at Bristol after they + had inhaled various gases as remedies for disease, and finding that the + patients supposed this application of the thermometer-bulb was the cure, + finally wrought cures by this application alone, without any use of the + gases whatever. Innumerable cases of this sort have thrown a flood of + light upon such cures as those wrought by Prince Hohenlohe, by the + "metallic tractors," and by a multitude of other agencies temporarily in + vogue, but, above all, upon the miraculous cures which in past ages have + been so frequent and of which a few survive. + </p> + <p> + The second department is that of hypnotism. Within the last half-century + many scattered indications have been collected and supplemented by + thoughtful, patient investigators of genius, and especially by Braid in + England and Charcot in France. Here, too, great inroads have been made + upon the province hitherto sacred to miracle, and in 1888 the cathedral + preacher, Steigenberger, of Augsburg, sounded an alarm. He declared his + fears "lest accredited Church miracles lose their hold upon the public," + denounced hypnotism as a doctrine of demons, and ended with the singular + argument that, inasmuch as hypnotism is avowedly incapable of explaining + all the wonders of history, it is idle to consider it at all. But + investigations in hypnotism still go on, and may do much in the twentieth + century to carry the world yet further from the realm of the miraculous. + </p> + <p> + In a third field science has won a striking series of victories. + Bacteriology, beginning in the researches of Leeuwenhoek in the + seventeenth century, continued by O. F. Muller in the eighteenth, and + developed or applied with wonderful skill by Ehrenberg, Cohn, Lister, + Pasteur, Koch, Billings, Bering, and their compeers in the nineteenth, has + explained the origin and proposed the prevention or cure of various + diseases widely prevailing, which until recently have been generally held + to be "inscrutable providences." Finally, the closer study of psychology, + especially in its relations to folklore, has revealed processes involved + in the development of myths and legends: the phenomena of "expectant + attention," the tendency to marvel-mongering, and the feeling of "joy in + believing." + </p> + <p> + In summing up the history of this long struggle between science and + theology, two main facts are to be noted: First, that in proportion as the + world approached the "ages of faith" it receded from ascertained truth, + and in proportion as the world has receded from the "ages of faith" it has + approached ascertained truth; secondly, that, in proportion as the grasp + of theology Upon education tightened, medicine declined, and in proportion + as that grasp has relaxed, medicine has been developed. + </p> + <p> + The world is hardly beyond the beginning of medical discoveries, yet they + have already taken from theology what was formerly its strongest province—sweeping + away from this vast field of human effort that belief in miracles which + for more than twenty centuries has been the main stumbling-block in the + path of medicine; and in doing this they have cleared higher paths not + only for science, but for religion.(328) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (328) For the rescue of medical education from the control of theology, +especially in France, see Rambaud, La Civilisation Contemporaine en +France, pp. 682, 683. For miraculous cures wrought by imagination, +see Tuke, Influence of Mind on Body, vol. ii. For opposition to the +scientific study of hypnotism, see Hypnotismus und Wunder: ein Vortrag, +mit Weiterungen, von Max Steigenberger, Domprediger, Augsburg, 1888, +reviewed in Science, Feb. 15, 1889, p. 127. For a recent statement +regarding the development of studies in hypnotism, see Liegeois, De +la Suggestion et du Somnambulisme dans leurs rapports avec la +Jurisprudence, Paris, 1889, chap. ii. As to joy in believing and +exaggerating marvels, see in the London Graphic for January 2, 1892, +an account of Hindu jugglers by "Professor" Hofmann, himself an expert +conjurer. He shows that the Hindu performances have been grossly and +persistently exaggerated in the accounts of travellers; that they are +easily seen through, and greatly inferior to the jugglers' tricks seen +every day in European capitals. The eminent Prof. De Gubernatis, who +also had witnessed the Hindu performances, assured the present writer +that the current accounts of them were monstrously exaggerated. As +to the miraculous in general, the famous Essay of Hume holds a most +important place in the older literature of the subject; but, for perhaps +the most remarkable of all discussions of it, see Conyers Middleton, D. +D., A Free Inquiry into the Miraculous Powers which are supposed to have +subsisted in the Christian Church, London, 1749. For probably the most +judicially fair discussion, see Lecky, History of European Morals, vol. +i, chap. iii; also his Rationalism in Europe, vol. i, chaps. i and ii; +and for perhaps the boldest and most suggestive of recent statements, +see Max Muller, Physical Religion, being the Gifford Lectures before the +University of Glasgow for 1890, London, 1891, lecture xiv. See also, for +very cogent statements and arguments, Matthew Arnold's Literature +and Dogma, especially chap. v, and, for a recent utterance of great +clearness and force, Prof. Osler's Address before the Johns Hopkins +University, given in Science for March 27, 1891. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIV. FROM FETICH TO HYGIENE. + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0057" id="link2H_4_0057"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I. THE THEOLOGICAL VIEW OF EPIDEMICS AND SANITATION. + </h2> + <p> + A very striking feature in recorded history has been the recurrence of + great pestilences. Various indications in ancient times show their + frequency, while the famous description of the plague of Athens given by + Thucydides, and the discussion of it by Lucretius, exemplify their + severity. In the Middle Ages they raged from time to time throughout + Europe: such plagues as the Black Death and the sweating sickness swept + off vast multitudes, the best authorities estimating that of the former, + at the middle of the fourteenth century, more than half the population of + England died, and that twenty-five millions of people perished in various + parts of Europe. In 1552 sixty-seven thousand patients died of the plague + at Paris alone, and in 1580 more than twenty thousand. The great plague in + England and other parts of Europe in the seventeenth century was also + fearful, and that which swept the south of Europe in the early part of the + eighteenth century, as well as the invasions by the cholera at various + times during the nineteenth, while less terrible than those of former + years, have left a deep impress upon the imaginations of men. + </p> + <p> + From the earliest records we find such pestilences attributed to the wrath + or malice of unseen powers. This had been the prevailing view even in the + most cultured ages before the establishment of Christianity: in Greece and + Rome especially, plagues of various sorts were attributed to the wrath of + the gods; in Judea, the scriptural records of various plagues sent upon + the earth by the Divine fiat as a punishment for sin show the continuance + of this mode of thought. Among many examples and intimations of this in + our sacred literature, we have the epidemic which carried off fourteen + thousand seven hundred of the children of Israel, and which was only + stayed by the prayers and offerings of Aaron, the high priest; the + destruction of seventy thousand men in the pestilence by which King David + was punished for the numbering of Israel, and which was only stopped when + the wrath of Jahveh was averted by burnt-offerings; the plague threatened + by the prophet Zechariah, and that delineated in the Apocalypse. From + these sources this current of ideas was poured into the early Christian + Church, and hence it has been that during nearly twenty centuries since + the rise of Christianity, and down to a period within living memory, at + the appearance of any pestilence the Church authorities, instead of + devising sanitary measures, have very generally preached the necessity of + immediate atonement for offences against the Almighty. + </p> + <p> + This view of the early Church was enriched greatly by a new development of + theological thought regarding the powers of Satan and evil angels, the + declaration of St. Paul that the gods of antiquity were devils being cited + as its sufficient warrant.(329) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (329) For plague during the Peloponnesian war, see Thucydides, vol. ii, +pp.47-55, and vol. iii, p. 87. For a general statement regarding this +and other plagues in ancient times, see Lucretius, vol. vi, pp. 1090 et +seq.; and for a translation, see vol. i, p. 179, in Munro's edition +of 1886. For early views of sanitary science in Greece and Rome, see +Forster's Inquiry, in The Pamphleteer, vol. xxiv, p. 404. For the +Greek view of the interference of the gods in disease, especially in +pestilence, see Grote's History of Greece, vol. i, pp. 251, 485, +and vol. vi, p. 213; see also Herodotus, lib. iii, c. xxxviii, and +elsewhere. For the Hebrew view of the same interference by the Almighty, +see especially Numbers xi, 4-34; also xvi, 49; I Samuel xxiv; also Psalm +cvi, 29; also the well-known texts in Zechariah and Revelation. For St. +Paul's declaration that the gods of the heathen are devils, see I Cor. +x, 20. As to the earlier origin of the plague in Egypt, see Haeser, +'Lehrbuch der Geschichte der Medicin und der epidemischen Krankheiten, +Jena, 1875-'82, vol. iii, pp. 15 et seq. +</pre> + <p> + Moreover, comets, falling stars, and earthquakes were thought, upon + scriptural authority, to be "signs and wonders"—evidences of the + Divine wrath, heralds of fearful visitations; and this belief, acting + powerfully upon the minds of millions, did much to create a panic-terror + sure to increase epidemic disease wherever it broke forth. + </p> + <p> + The main cause of this immense sacrifice of life is now known to have been + the want of hygienic precaution, both in the Eastern centres, where + various plagues were developed, and in the European towns through which + they spread. And here certain theological reasonings came in to resist the + evolution of a proper sanitary theory. Out of the Orient had been poured + into the thinking of western Europe the theological idea that the + abasement of man adds to the glory of God; that indignity to the body may + secure salvation to the soul; hence, that cleanliness betokens pride and + filthiness humility. Living in filth was regarded by great numbers of holy + men, who set an example to the Church and to society, as an evidence of + sanctity. St. Jerome and the Breviary of the Roman Church dwell with + unction on the fact that St. Hilarion lived his whole life long in utter + physical uncleanliness; St. Athanasius glorifies St. Anthony because he + had never washed his feet; St. Abraham's most striking evidence of + holiness was that for fifty years he washed neither his hands nor his + feet; St. Sylvia never washed any part of her body save her fingers; St. + Euphraxia belonged to a convent in which the nuns religiously abstained + from bathing. St. Mary of Egypt was eminent for filthiness; St. Simnon + Stylites was in this respect unspeakable—the least that can be said + is, that he lived in ordure and stench intolerable to his visitors. The + Lives of the Saints dwell with complacency on the statement that, when + sundry Eastern monks showed a disposition to wash themselves, the Almighty + manifested his displeasure by drying up a neighbouring stream until the + bath which it had supplied was destroyed. + </p> + <p> + The religious world was far indeed from the inspired utterance attributed + to John Wesley, that "cleanliness is near akin to godliness." For century + after century the idea prevailed that filthiness was akin to holiness; + and, while we may well believe that the devotion of the clergy to the sick + was one cause why, during the greater plagues, they lost so large a + proportion of their numbers, we can not escape the conclusion that their + want of cleanliness had much to do with it. In France, during the + fourteenth century, Guy de Chauliac, the great physician of his time, + noted particularly that certain Carmelite monks suffered especially from + pestilence, and that they were especially filthy. During the Black Death + no less than nine hundred Carthusian monks fell victims in one group of + buildings. + </p> + <p> + Naturally, such an example set by the venerated leaders of thought + exercised great influence throughout society, and all the more because it + justified the carelessness and sloth to which ordinary humanity is prone. + In the principal towns of Europe, as well as in the country at large, down + to a recent period, the most ordinary sanitary precautions were neglected, + and pestilences continued to be attributed to the wrath of God or the + malice of Satan. As to the wrath of God, a new and powerful impulse was + given to this belief in the Church toward the end of the sixth century by + St. Gregory the Great. In 590, when he was elected Pope, the city of Rome + was suffering from a dreadful pestilence: the people were dying by + thousands; out of one procession imploring the mercy of Heaven no less + than eighty persons died within an hour: what the heathen in an earlier + epoch had attributed to Apollo was now attributed to Jehovah, and + chroniclers tell us that fiery darts were seen flung from heaven into the + devoted city. But finally, in the midst of all this horror, Gregory, at + the head of a penitential procession, saw hovering over the mausoleum of + Hadrian the figure of the archangel Michael, who was just sheathing a + flaming sword, while three angels were heard chanting the Regina Coeli. + The legend continues that the Pope immediately broke forth into + hallelujahs for this sign that the plague was stayed, and, as it shortly + afterward became less severe, a chapel was built at the summit of the + mausoleum and dedicated to St. Michael; still later, above the whole was + erected the colossal statue of the archangel sheathing his sword, which + still stands to perpetuate the legend. Thus the greatest of Rome's ancient + funeral monuments was made to bear testimony to this medieval belief; the + mausoleum of Hadrian became the castle of St. Angelo. A legend like this, + claiming to date from the greatest of the early popes, and vouched for by + such an imposing monument, had undoubtedly a marked effect upon the + dominant theology throughout Europe, which was constantly developing a + great body of thought regarding the agencies by which the Divine wrath + might be averted. + </p> + <p> + First among these agencies, naturally, were evidences of devotion, + especially gifts of land, money, or privileges to churches, monasteries, + and shrines—the seats of fetiches which it was supposed had wrought + cures or might work them. The whole evolution of modern history, not only + ecclesiastical but civil, has been largely affected by the wealth + transferred to the clergy at such periods. It was noted that in the + fourteenth century, after the great plague, the Black Death, had passed, + an immensely increased proportion of the landed and personal property of + every European country was in the hands of the Church. Well did a great + ecclesiastic remark that "pestilences are the harvests of the ministers of + God."(330) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (330) For triumphant mention of St. Hilarion's filth, see the Roman +Breviary for October 21st; and for details, see S. Hieronymus, Vita S. +Hilarionis Eremitae, in Migne, Patrologia, vol. xxiii. For Athanasius's +reference to St. Anthony's filth, see works of St. Athanasius in the +Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, second series, vol. iv, p. 209. For the +filthiness of the other saints named, see citations from the Lives of +the Saints, in Lecky's History of European Morals, vol. ii, pp. 117, +118. For Guy de Chauliac's observation on the filthiness of Carmelite +monks and their great losses by pestilence, see Meryon, History of +Medicine, vol. i, p. 257. For the mortality among the Carthusian monks +in time of plague, see Mrs. Lecky's very interesting Visit to the Grand +Chartreuse, in The Nineteenth Century for March, 1891. For the plague +at Rome in 590, the legend regarding the fiery darts, mentioned by Pope +Gregory himself, and that of the castle of St. Angelo, see Gregorovius, +Geschichte der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter, vol. ii, pp. 26-35; also Story, +Castle of St. Angelo, etc., chap. ii. For the remark that "pestilences +are the harvest of the ministers of God," see reference to Charlevoix, +in Southey, History of Brazil, vol. ii, p. 254, cited in Buckle, vol. i, +p. 130, note. +</pre> + <p> + Other modes of propitiating the higher powers were penitential + processions, the parading of images of the Virgin or of saints through + plague-stricken towns, and fetiches innumerable. Very noted in the + thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were the processions of the + flagellants, trooping through various parts of Europe, scourging their + naked bodies, shrieking the penitential psalms, and often running from + wild excesses of devotion to the maddest orgies. + </p> + <p> + Sometimes, too, plagues were attributed to the wrath of lesser heavenly + powers. Just as, in former times, the fury of "far-darting Apollo" was + felt when his name was not respectfully treated by mortals, so, in 1680, + the Church authorities at Rome discovered that the plague then raging + resulted from the anger of St. Sebastian because no monument had been + erected to him. Such a monument was therefore placed in the Church of St. + Peter ad Vincula, and the plague ceased. + </p> + <p> + So much for the endeavour to avert the wrath of the heavenly powers. On + the other hand, theological reasoning no less subtle was used in thwarting + the malice of Satan. This idea, too, came from far. In the sacred books of + India and Persia, as well as in our own, we find the same theory of + disease, leading to similar means of cure. Perhaps the most astounding + among Christian survivals of this theory and its resultant practices was + seen during the plague at Rome in 1522. In that year, at that centre of + divine illumination, certain people, having reasoned upon the matter, came + to the conclusion that this great scourge was the result of Satanic + malice; and, in view of St. Paul's declaration that the ancient gods were + devils, and of the theory that the ancient gods of Rome were the devils + who had the most reason to punish that city for their dethronement, and + that the great amphitheatre was the chosen haunt of these demon gods, an + ox decorated with garlands, after the ancient heathen manner, was taken in + procession to the Colosseum and solemnly sacrificed. Even this proved + vain, and the Church authorities then ordered expiatory processions and + ceremonies to propitiate the Almighty, the Virgin, and the saints, who had + been offended by this temporary effort to bribe their enemies. + </p> + <p> + But this sort of theological reasoning developed an idea far more + disastrous, and this was that Satan, in causing pestilences, used as his + emissaries especially Jews and witches. The proof of this belief in the + case of the Jews was seen in the fact that they escaped with a less + percentage of disease than did the Christians in the great plague periods. + This was doubtless due in some measure to their remarkable sanitary + system, which had probably originated thousands of years before in Egypt, + and had been handed down through Jewish lawgivers and statesmen. Certainly + they observed more careful sanitary rules and more constant abstinence + from dangerous foods than was usual among Christians; but the public at + large could not understand so simple a cause, and jumped to the conclusion + that their immunity resulted from protection by Satan, and that this + protection was repaid and the pestilence caused by their wholesale + poisoning of Christians. As a result of this mode of thought, attempts + were made in all parts of Europe to propitiate the Almighty, to thwart + Satan, and to stop the plague by torturing and murdering the Jews. + Throughout Europe during great pestilences we hear of extensive burnings + of this devoted people. In Bavaria, at the time of the Black Death, it is + computed that twelve thousand Jews thus perished; in the small town of + Erfurt the number is said to have been three thousand; in Strasburg, the + Rue Brulee remains as a monument to the two thousand Jews burned there for + poisoning the wells and causing the plague of 1348; at the royal castle of + Chinon, near Tours, an immense trench was dug, filled with blazing wood, + and in a single day one hundred and sixty Jews were burned. Everywhere in + continental Europe this mad persecution went on; but it is a pleasure to + say that one great churchman, Pope Clement VI, stood against this popular + unreason, and, so far as he could bring his influence to bear on the + maddened populace, exercised it in favour of mercy to these supposed + enemies of the Almighty.(331) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (331) For an early conception in India of the Divinity acting through +medicine, see The Bhagavadgita, translated by Telang, p. 82, in Max +Muller's Sacred Books of the East. For the necessity of religious +means of securing knowledge of medicine, see the Anugita, translated by +Telang, in Max Muller's Sacred Books of the East, p. 388. For ancient +Persian ideas of sickness as sent by the spirit of evil and to be cured +by spells, but not excluding medicine and surgery, and for sickness +generally as caused by the evil principle in demons, see the +Zend-Avesta, Darmesteter's translation, introduction, passim, but +especially p. xciii. For diseases wrought by witchcraft, see the same, +pp. 230, 293. On the preferences of spells in healing over medicine and +surgery, see Zend-Avesta, vol. i, pp. 85, 86. For healing by magic in +ancient Greece, see, e. g., the cure of Ulysses in the Odyssey, "They +stopped the black blood by a spell" (Odyssey, xxix, 457). For medicine +in Egypt as partly priestly and partly in the hands of physicians, see +Rawlinson's Herodotus, vol. ii, p. 136, note. For ideas of curing of +disease by expulsion of demons still surviving among various tribes +and nations of Asia, see J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough: a Study of +Comparative Religion, London, 1890, pp. 184-192. For the Flagellants and +their processions at the time of the Black Death, see Lea, History +of the Inquisition, New York, 1888, vol. ii, pp. 381 et seq. For the +persecution of the Jews in time of pestilence, see ibid., p. 379 and +following, with authorities in the notes. For the expulsion of the Jews +from Padua, see the Acta Sanctorum, September, tom. viii, p. 893. +</pre> + <p> + Yet, as late as 1527, the people of Pavia, being threatened with plague, + appealed to St. Bernardino of Feltro, who during his life had been a + fierce enemy of the Jews, and they passed a decree promising that if the + saint would avert the pestilence they would expel the Jews from the city. + The saint apparently accepted the bargain, and in due time the Jews were + expelled. + </p> + <p> + As to witches, the reasons for believing them the cause of pestilence also + came from far. This belief, too, had been poured mainly from Oriental + sources into our sacred books and thence into the early Church, and was + strengthened by a whole line of Church authorities, fathers, doctors, and + saints; but, above all, by the great bull, Summis Desiderantes, issued by + Pope Innocent VIII, in 1484. This utterance from the seat of St. Peter + infallibly committed the Church to the idea that witches are a great cause + of disease, storms, and various ills which afflict humanity; and the + Scripture on which the action recommended against witches in this papal + bull, as well as in so many sermons and treatises for centuries afterward, + was based, was the famous text, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." + This idea persisted long, and the evolution of it is among the most + fearful things in human history.(332) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (332) On the plagues generally, see Hecker, Epidemics of the Middle +Ages, passim; but especially Haeser, as above, III. Band, pp. 1-202; +also Sprengel, Baas, Isensee, et al. For brief statement showing +the enormous loss of life in these plagues, see Littre, Medecine et +Medecins, Paris, 1875, pp. 3 et seq. For a summary of the effects of +the Black Plague throughout England, see Green's Short History of the +English People, chap. v. For the mortality in the Paris hospitals, +see Desmazes, Supplices, Prisons et Graces en France, Paris 1866. For +striking descriptions of plague-stricken cities, see the well-known +passages in Thucydides, Boccaccio, De Foe, and, above all, Manzoni's +Promessi Sposi. For examples of averting the plagues by processions, see +Leopold Delisle, Etudes sur la Condition de la Classe Agricole, etc., en +Normandie au Moyen Age, p. 630; also Fort, chap. xxiii. For the anger of +St. Sebastian as a cause of the plague at Rome, and its cessation when +a monument had been erected to him, see Paulus Diaconus, cited in +Gregorovius, vol. ii. p. 165. For the sacrifice of an ox in the +Colosseum to the ancient gods as a means of averting the plague of 1522, +at Rome, see Gregorovius, vol. viii, p. 390. As to massacres of the +Jews in order to avert the wrath of God in pestilence, see L'Ecole et la +Science, Paris, 1887, p. 178; also Hecker, and especially Hoeniger, Gang +und Verbreitung des Schwarzen Todes in Deutschalnd, Berlin, 1889. For +a long list of towns in which burnings of Jews took place for this +imaginary cause, see pp. 7-11. As to absolute want of sanitary +precautions, see Hecker, p. 292. As to condemnation by strong +religionists of medical means in the plague, see Fort, p. 130. For a +detailed account of the action of Popes Eugene IV, Innocent VIII, and +other popes, against witchcraft, ascribing to it storms and diseases, +and for the bull Summis Desiderantes, see the chapters on Meteorology +and Magic in this series. The text of the bull is given in the Malleus +Maleficarum, in Binsfield, and in Roskoff, Geschichte des Teufels, +Leipzig, 1869, vol. i, pp. 222-225, and a good summary and analysis of +it in Soldan, Geschichte der Hexenprocesse. For a concise and admirable +statement of the contents and effects of the bull, see Lea, History of +the Inquisition, vol. iii, pp. 40 et seq.; and for the best statement +known to me of the general subject, Prof. George L. Burr's paper on +The Literature of Witchcraft, read before the American Historical +Association at Washington, 1890. +</pre> + <p> + In Germany its development was especially terrible. From the middle of the + sixteenth century to the middle of the seventeenth, Catholic and + Protestant theologians and ecclesiastics vied with each other in detecting + witches guilty of producing sickness or bad weather; women were sent to + torture and death by thousands, and with them, from time to time, men and + children. On the Catholic side sufficient warrant for this work was found + in the bull of Pope Innocent VIII, and the bishops' palaces of south + Germany became shambles,—the lordly prelates of Salzburg, Wurzburg, + and Bamberg taking the lead in this butchery. + </p> + <p> + In north Germany Protestantism was just as conscientiously cruel. It based + its theory and practice toward witches directly upon the Bible, and above + all on the great text which has cost the lives of so many myriads of + innocent men, women, and children, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to + live." Naturally the Protestant authorities strove to show that + Protestantism was no less orthodox in this respect than Catholicism; and + such theological jurists as Carpzov, Damhouder, and Calov did their work + thoroughly. An eminent authority on this subject estimates the number of + victims thus sacrificed during that century in Germany alone at over a + hundred thousand. + </p> + <p> + Among the methods of this witch activity especially credited in central + and southern Europe was the anointing of city walls and pavements with a + diabolical unguent causing pestilence. In 1530 Michael Caddo was executed + with fearful tortures for thus besmearing the pavements of Geneva. But far + more dreadful was the torturing to death of a large body of people at + Milan, in the following century, for producing the plague by anointing the + walls; and a little later similar punishments for the same crime were + administered in Toulouse and other cities. The case in Milan may be + briefly summarized as showing the ideas on sanitary science of all + classes, from highest to lowest, in the seventeenth century. That city was + then under the control of Spain; and, its authorities having received + notice from the Spanish Government that certain persons suspected of + witchcraft had recently left Madrid, and had perhaps gone to Milan to + anoint the walls, this communication was dwelt upon in the pulpits as + another evidence of that Satanic malice which the Church alone had the + means of resisting, and the people were thus excited and put upon the + alert. One morning, in the year 1630, an old woman, looking out of her + window, saw a man walking along the street and wiping his fingers upon the + walls; she immediately called the attention of another old woman, and they + agreed that this man must be one of the diabolical anointers. It was + perfectly evident to a person under ordinary conditions that this + unfortunate man was simply trying to remove from his fingers the ink + gathered while writing from the ink-horn which he carried in his girdle; + but this explanation was too simple to satisfy those who first observed + him or those who afterward tried him: a mob was raised and he was thrown + into prison. Being tortured, he at first did not know what to confess; + but, on inquiring from the jailer and others, he learned what the charge + was, and, on being again subjected to torture utterly beyond endurance, he + confessed everything which was suggested to him; and, on being tortured + again and again to give the names of his accomplices, he accused, at + hazard, the first people in the city whom he thought of. These, being + arrested and tortured beyond endurance, confessed and implicated a still + greater number, until members of the foremost families were included in + the charge. Again and again all these unfortunates were tortured beyond + endurance. Under paganism, the rule regarding torture had been that it + should not be carried beyond human endurance; and we therefore find Cicero + ridiculing it as a means of detecting crime, because a stalwart criminal + of strong nerves might resist it and go free, while a physically delicate + man, though innocent, would be forced to confess. Hence it was that under + paganism a limit was imposed to the torture which could be administered; + but, when Christianity had become predominant throughout Europe, torture + was developed with a cruelty never before known. There had been evolved a + doctrine of "excepted cases"—these "excepted cases" being especially + heresy and witchcraft; for by a very simple and logical process of + theological reasoning it was held that Satan would give supernatural + strength to his special devotees—that is, to heretics and witches—and + therefore that, in dealing with them, there should be no limit to the + torture. The result was in this particular case, as in tens of thousands + besides, that the accused confessed everything which could be suggested to + them, and often in the delirium of their agony confessed far more than all + that the zeal of the prosecutors could suggest. Finally, a great number of + worthy people were sentenced to the most cruel death which could be + invented. The records of their trials and deaths are frightful. The + treatise which in recent years has first brought to light in connected + form an authentic account of the proceedings in this affair, and which + gives at the end engravings of the accused subjected to horrible tortures + on their way to the stake and at the place of execution itself, is one of + the most fearful monuments of theological reasoning and human folly. + </p> + <p> + To cap the climax, after a poor apothecary had been tortured into a + confession that he had made the magic ointment, and when he had been put + to death with the most exquisite refinements of torture, his family were + obliged to take another name, and were driven out from the city; his house + was torn down, and on its site was erected "The Column of Infamy," which + remained on this spot until, toward the end of the eighteenth century, a + party of young radicals, probably influenced by the reading of Beccaria, + sallied forth one night and leveled this pious monument to the ground. + </p> + <p> + Herein was seen the culmination and decline of the bull Summis + Desiderantes. It had been issued by him whom a majority of the Christian + world believes to be infallible in his teachings to the Church as regards + faith and morals; yet here was a deliberate utterance in a matter of faith + and morals which even children now know to be utterly untrue. Though + Beccaria's book on Crimes and Punishments, with its declarations against + torture, was placed by the Church authorities upon the Index, and though + the faithful throughout the Christian world were forbidden to read it, + even this could not prevent the victory of truth over this infallible + utterance of Innocent VIII.(333) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (333) As to the fearful effects of the papal bull Summis Desiderantes in +south Germany, as to the Protestant severities in north Germany, as to +the immense number of women and children put to death for witchcraft +in Germany generally for spreading storms and pestilence, and as to the +monstrous doctrine of "excepted cases," see the standard authorities on +witchcraft, especially Wachter, Beitrage zur Geschichte des Strafrechts, +Soldan, Horst, Hauber, and Langin; also Burr, as above. In another +series of chapters on The Warfare of Humanity with Theology, I hope to +go more fully into the subject. For the magic spreading of the plague at +Milan, see Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi and La Colonna Infame; and for +the origin of the charges, with all the details of the trail, see the +Precesso Originale degli Untori, Milan, 1839, passim, but especially +the large folding plate at the end, exhibiting the tortures. For the +after-history of the Column of Infamy, and for the placing of Beccaria's +book on the Index, see Cantu, Vita di Beccaria. For the magic spreading +of the plague in general, see Littre, pp. 492 and following. +</pre> + <p> + As the seventeenth century went on, ingenuity in all parts of Europe + seemed devoted to new developments of fetichism. A very curious monument + of this evolution in Italy exists in the Royal Gallery of Paintings at + Naples, where may be seen several pictures representing the measures taken + to save the city from the plague during the seventeenth century, but + especially from the plague of 1656. One enormous canvas gives a curious + example of the theological doctrine of intercession between man and his + Maker, spun out to its logical length. In the background is the + plague-stricken city: in the foreground the people are praying to the city + authorities to avert the plague; the city authorities are praying to the + Carthusian monks; the monks are praying to St. Martin, St. Bruno, and St. + Januarius; these three saints in their turn are praying to the Virgin; the + Virgin prays to Christ; and Christ prays to the Almighty. Still another + picture represents the people, led by the priests, executing with horrible + tortures the Jews, heretics, and witches who were supposed to cause the + pestilence of 1656, while in the heavens the Virgin and St. Januarius are + interceding with Christ to sheathe his sword and stop the plague. + </p> + <p> + In such an atmosphere of thought it is no wonder that the death statistics + were appalling. We hear of districts in which not more than one in ten + escaped, and some were entirely depopulated. + </p> + <p> + Such appeals to fetich against pestilence have continued in Naples down to + our own time, the great saving power being the liquefaction of the blood + of St. Januarius. In 1856 the present writer saw this miracle performed in + the gorgeous chapel of the saint forming part of the Cathedral of Naples. + The chapel was filled with devout worshippers of every class, from the + officials in court dress, representing the Bourbon king, down to the + lowest lazzaroni. The reliquary of silver-gilt, shaped like a large human + head, and supposed to contain the skull of the saint, was first placed + upon the altar; next, two vials containing a dark substance said to be his + blood, having been taken from the wall, were also placed upon the altar + near the head. As the priests said masses, they turned the vials from time + to time, and the liquefaction being somewhat delayed, the great crowd of + people burst out into more and more impassioned expostulation and + petitions to the saint. Just in front of the altar were the lazzaroni who + claimed to be descendants of the saint's family, and these were especially + importunate: at such times they beg, they scold, they even threaten; they + have been known to abuse the saint roundly, and to tell him that, if he + did not care to show his favour to the city by liquefying his blood, St. + Cosmo and St. Damian were just as good saints as he, and would no doubt be + very glad to have the city devote itself to them. At last, on the occasion + above referred to, the priest, turning the vials suddenly, announced that + the saint had performed the miracle, and instantly priests, people, choir, + and organ burst forth into a great Te Deum; bells rang, and cannon roared; + a procession was formed, and the shrine containing the saint's relics was + carried through the streets, the people prostrating themselves on both + sides of the way and throwing showers of rose leaves upon the shrine and + upon the path before it. The contents of these precious vials are an + interesting relic indeed, for they represent to us vividly that period + when men who were willing to go to the stake for their religious opinions + thought it not wrong to save the souls of their fellowmen by pious + mendacity and consecrated fraud. To the scientific eye this miracle is + very simple: the vials contain, no doubt, one of those mixtures fusing at + low temperature, which, while kept in its place within the cold stone + walls of the church, remains solid, but upon being brought out into the + hot, crowded chapel, and fondled by the warm hands of the priests, + gradually softens and becomes liquid. It was curious to note, at the time + above mentioned, that even the high functionaries representing the king + looked at the miracle with awe: they evidently found "joy in believing," + and one of them assured the present writer that the only thing which COULD + cause it was the direct exercise of miraculous power. + </p> + <p> + It may be reassuring to persons contemplating a visit to that beautiful + capital in these days, that, while this miracle still goes on, it is no + longer the only thing relied upon to preserve the public health. An + unbelieving generation, especially taught by the recent horrors of the + cholera, has thought it wise to supplement the power of St. Januarius by + the "Risanamento," begun mainly in 1885 and still going on. The drainage + of the city has thus been greatly improved, the old wells closed, and pure + water introduced from the mountains. Moreover, at the last outburst of + cholera a few years since, a noble deed was done which by its moral effect + exercised a widespread healing power. Upon hearing of this terrific + outbreak of pestilence, King Humbert, though under the ban of the Church, + broke from all the entreaties of his friends and family, went directly + into the plague-stricken city, and there, in the streets, public places, + and hospitals, encouraged the living, comforted the sick and dying, and + took means to prevent a further spread of the pestilence. To the credit of + the Church it should also be said that the Cardinal Archbishop San Felice + joined him in this. + </p> + <p> + Miracle for miracle, the effect of this visit of the king seems to have + surpassed anything that St. Januarius could do, for it gave confidence and + courage which very soon showed their effects in diminishing the number of + deaths. It would certainly appear that in this matter the king was more + directly under Divine inspiration and guidance than was the Pope; for the + fact that King Humbert went to Naples at the risk of his life, while Leo + XIII remained in safety at the Vatican, impressed the Italian people in + favour of the new regime and against the old as nothing else could have + done. + </p> + <p> + In other parts of Italy the same progress is seen under the new Italian + government. Venice, Genoa, Leghorn, and especially Rome, which under the + sway of the popes was scandalously filthy, are now among the cleanest + cities in Europe. What the relics of St. Januarius, St. Anthony, and a + multitude of local fetiches throughout Italy were for ages utterly unable + to do, has been accomplished by the development of the simplest sanitary + principles. + </p> + <p> + Spain shows much the same characteristics of a country where theological + considerations have been all-controlling for centuries. Down to the + interference of Napoleon with that kingdom, all sanitary efforts were + looked upon as absurd if not impious. The most sober accounts of + travellers in the Spanish Peninsula until a recent period are sometimes + irresistibly comic in their pictures of peoples insisting on maintaining + arrangements more filthy than any which would be permitted in an American + backwoods camp, while taking enormous pains to stop pestilence by + bell-ringings, processions, and new dresses bestowed upon the local + Madonnas; yet here, too, a healthful scepticism has begun to work for + good. The outbreaks of cholera in recent years have done some little to + bring in better sanitary measures.(334) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (334) As to the recourse to fetichism in Italy in time of plague, and +the pictures showing the intercession of Januarius and other saints, I +have relied on my own notes made at various visits to Naples. For the +general subject, see Peter, Etudes Napolitaines, especially chapters +v and vi. For detailed accounts of the liquefaction of St. Januarius's +blood by eye-witnesses, one an eminent Catholic of the seventeenth +century, and the other a distinguished Protestant of our own time, +see Murray's Handbook for South Italy and Naples, description of the +Cathedral of San Gennaro. For an interesting series of articles on the +subject, see The Catholic World for September, October, and November, +1871. For the incredible filthiness of the great cities of Spain, and +the resistance of the people, down to a recent period, to the most +ordinary regulations prompted by decency, see Bascome, History of +the Epidemic Pestilences, especially pp. 119, 120. See also the +Autobiography of D'Ewes, London, 1845, vol. ii, p. 446; also, for +various citations, the second volume of Buckle, History of Civilization +in England. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0058" id="link2H_4_0058"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II. GRADUAL DECAY OF THEOLOGICAL VIEWS REGARDING SANITATION. + </h2> + <p> + We have seen how powerful in various nations especially obedient to + theology were the forces working in opposition to the evolution of + hygiene, and we shall find this same opposition, less effective, it is + true, but still acting with great power, in countries which had become + somewhat emancipated from theological control. In England, during the + medieval period, persecutions of Jews were occasionally resorted to, and + here and there we hear of persecutions of witches; but, as torture was + rarely used in England, there were, from those charged with producing + plague, few of those torture-born confessions which in other countries + gave rise to widespread cruelties. Down to the sixteenth and seventeenth + centuries the filthiness in the ordinary mode of life in England was such + as we can now hardly conceive: fermenting organic material was allowed to + accumulate and become a part of the earthen floors of rural dwellings; and + this undoubtedly developed the germs of many diseases. In his noted letter + to the physician of Cardinal Wolsey, Erasmus describes the filth thus + incorporated into the floors of English houses, and, what is of far more + importance, he shows an inkling of the true cause of the wasting diseases + of the period. He says, "If I entered into a chamber which had been + uninhabited for months, I was immediately seized with a fever." He + ascribed the fearful plague of the sweating sickness to this cause. So, + too, the noted Dr. Caius advised sanitary precautions against the plague, + and in after-generations, Mead, Pringle, and others urged them; but the + prevailing thought was too strong, and little was done. Even the floor of + the presence chamber of Queen Elizabeth in Greenwich Palace was "covered + with hay, after the English fashion," as one of the chroniclers tells us. + </p> + <p> + In the seventeenth century, aid in these great scourges was mainly sought + in special church services. The foremost English churchmen during that + century being greatly given to study of the early fathers of the Church; + the theological theory of disease, so dear to the fathers, still held + sway, and this was the case when the various visitations reached their + climax in the great plague of London in 1665, which swept off more than a + hundred thousand people from that city. The attempts at meeting it by + sanitary measures were few and poor; the medical system of the time was + still largely tinctured by superstitions resulting from medieval modes of + thought; hence that plague was generally attributed to the Divine wrath + caused by "the prophaning of the Sabbath." Texts from Numbers, the Psalms, + Zechariah, and the Apocalypse were dwelt upon in the pulpits to show that + plagues are sent by the Almighty to punish sin; and perhaps the most + ghastly figure among all those fearful scenes described by De Foe is that + of the naked fanatic walking up and down the streets with a pan of fiery + coals upon his head, and, after the manner of Jonah at Nineveh, + proclaiming woe to the city, and its destruction in forty days. + </p> + <p> + That sin caused this plague is certain, but it was sanitary sin. Both + before and after this culmination of the disease cases of plague were + constantly occurring in London throughout the seventeenth century; but + about the beginning of the eighteenth century it began to disappear. The + great fire had done a good work by sweeping off many causes and centres of + infection, and there had come wider streets, better pavements, and + improved water supply; so that, with the disappearance of the plague, + other diseases, especially dysenteries, which had formerly raged in the + city, became much less frequent. + </p> + <p> + But, while these epidemics were thus checked in London, others developed + by sanitary ignorance raged fearfully both there and elsewhere, and of + these perhaps the most fearful was the jail fever. The prisons of that + period were vile beyond belief. Men were confined in dungeons rarely if + ever disinfected after the death of previous occupants, and on corridors + connecting directly with the foulest sewers: there was no proper + disinfection, ventilation, or drainage; hence in most of the large prisons + for criminals or debtors the jail fever was supreme, and from these + centres it frequently spread through the adjacent towns. This was + especially the case during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the + Black Assize at Oxford, in 1577, the chief baron, the sheriff, and about + three hundred men died within forty hours. Lord Bacon declared the jail + fever "the most pernicious infection next to the plague." In 1730, at the + Dorsetshire Assize, the chief baron and many lawyers were killed by it. + The High Sheriff of Somerset also took the disease and died. A single + Scotch regiment, being infected from some prisoners, lost no less than two + hundred. In 1750 the disease was so virulent at Newgate, in the heart of + London, that two judges, the lord mayor, sundry aldermen, and many others, + died of it. + </p> + <p> + It is worth noting that, while efforts at sanitary dealing with this state + of things were few, the theological spirit developed a new and special + form of prayer for the sufferers and placed it in the Irish Prayer Book. + </p> + <p> + These forms of prayer seem to have been the main reliance through the + first half of the eighteenth century. But about 1750 began the work of + John Howard, who visited the prisons of England, made known their + condition to the world, and never rested until they were greatly improved. + Then he applied the same benevolent activity to prisons in other + countries, in the far East, and in southern Europe, and finally laid down + his life, a victim to disease contracted on one of his missions of mercy; + but the hygienic reforms he began were developed more and more until this + fearful blot upon modern civilization was removed.(335) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (335) For Erasmus, see the letter cited in Bascome, History of Epidemic +Pestilences, London, 1851. For the account of the condition of Queen +Elizabeth's presence chamber, see the same, p. 206; see also the same +for attempts at sanitation by Caius, Mead, Pringle, and others; also +see Baas and various medical authorities. For the plague in London, see +Green's History of the English People, chap. ix, sec. 2; and for a more +detailed account, see Lingard, History of England, enlarged edition of +1849, vol. ix, pp. 107 et seq. For full scientific discussion of this +and other plagues from a medical point of view, see Creighton, History +of Epidemics in Great Britain, vol. ii, chap. i. For the London plague +as a punishment for Sabbath-breaking, see A Divine Tragedie lately +acted, or A collection of sundry memorable examples of God's judgements +upon Sabbath Breakers and other like libertines, etc., by the worthy +divine, Mr. Henry Burton, 1641. The book gives fifty-six accounts of +Sabbath-breakers sorely punished, generally struck dead, in England, +with places, names, and dates. For a general account of the condition of +London in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the diminution of +the plague by the rebuilding of some parts of the city after the great +fire, see Lecky, History of England in the Eighteenth Century, vol. i, +pp. 592, 593. For the jail fever, see Lecky, vol. i, pp. 500-503. +</pre> + <p> + The same thing was seen in the Protestant colonies of America; but here, + while plagues were steadily attributed to Divine wrath or Satanic malice, + there was one case in which it was claimed that such a visitation was due + to the Divine mercy. The pestilence among the INDIANS, before the arrival + of the Plymouth Colony, was attributed in a notable work of that period to + the Divine purpose of clearing New England for the heralds of the gospel; + on the other hand, the plagues which destroyed the WHITE population were + attributed by the same authority to devils and witches. In Cotton Mather's + Wonder of the Invisible World, published at Boston in 1693, we have + striking examples of this. The great Puritan divine tells us: + </p> + <p> + "Plagues are some of those woes, with which the Divil troubles us. It is + said of the Israelites, in 1 Cor. 10. 10. THEY WERE DESTROYED OF THE + DESTROYER. That is, they had the Plague among them. 'Tis the Destroyer, or + the Divil, that scatters Plagues about the World: Pestilential and + Contagious Diseases, 'tis the Divel, who do's oftentimes Invade us with + them. 'Tis no uneasy thing, for the Divel, to impregnate the Air about us, + with such Malignant Salts, as meeting with the Salt of our Microcosm, + shall immediately cast us into that Fermentation and Putrefaction, which + will utterly dissolve All the Vital Tyes within us; Ev'n as an Aqua + Fortis, made with a conjunction of Nitre and Vitriol, Corrodes what it + Siezes upon. And when the Divel has raised those Arsenical Fumes, which + become Venomous. Quivers full of Terrible Arrows, how easily can he shoot + the deleterious Miasms into those Juices or Bowels of Men's Bodies, which + will soon Enflame them with a Mortal Fire! Hence come such Plagues, as + that Beesome of Destruction which within our memory swept away such a + throng of people from one English City in one Visitation: and hence those + Infectious Feavers, which are but so many Disguised Plagues among us, + Causing Epidemical Desolations." + </p> + <p> + Mather gives several instances of witches causing diseases, and speaks of + "some long Bow'd down under such a Spirit of Infirmity" being "Marvelously + Recovered upon the Death of the Witches," of which he gives an instance. + He also cites a case where a patient "was brought unto death's door and so + remained until the witch was taken and carried away by the constable, when + he began at once to recover and was soon well."(336) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (336) For the passages from Cotton Mather, see his book as cited, pp. +17, 18, also 134, 145. Johnson declares that "by this meanes Christ... +not only made roome for His people to plant, but also tamed the hard +and cruell hearts of these barbarous Indians, insomuch that a halfe a +handful of His people landing not long after in Plymouth Plantation, +found little resistance." See The History of New England, by Edward +Johnson, London, 1654. Reprinted in the Massachusetts Historical +Society's Collection, second series, vol. i, p. 67. +</pre> + <p> + In France we see, during generation after generation, a similar history + evolved; pestilence after pestilence came, and was met by various + fetiches. Noteworthy is the plague at Marseilles near the beginning of the + last century. The chronicles of its sway are ghastly. They speak of great + heaps of the unburied dead in the public places, "forming pestilential + volcanoes"; of plague-stricken men and women in delirium wandering naked + through the streets; of churches and shrines thronged with great crowds + shrieking for mercy; of other crowds flinging themselves into the wildest + debauchery; of robber bands assassinating the dying and plundering the + dead; of three thousand neglected children collected in one hospital and + then left to die; and of the death-roll numbering at last fifty thousand + out of a population of less than ninety thousand. + </p> + <p> + In the midst of these fearful scenes stood a body of men and women worthy + to be held in eternal honour—the physicians from Paris and + Montpellier; the mayor of the city, and one or two of his associates; but, + above all, the Chevalier Roze and Bishop Belzunce. The history of these + men may well make us glory in human nature; but in all this noble group + the figure of Belzunce is the most striking. Nobly and firmly, when so + many others even among the regular and secular ecclesiastics fled, he + stood by his flock: day and night he was at work in the hospitals, + cheering the living, comforting the dying, and doing what was possible for + the decent disposal of the dead. In him were united the two great + antagonistic currents of religion and of theology. As a theologian he + organized processions and expiatory services, which, it must be confessed, + rather increased the disease than diminished it; moreover, he accepted + that wild dream of a hysterical nun—the worship of the material, + physical sacred heart of Jesus—and was one of the first to + consecrate his diocese to it; but, on the other hand, the religious spirit + gave in him one of its most beautiful manifestations in that or any other + century; justly have the people of Marseilles placed his statue in the + midst of their city in an attitude of prayer and blessing. + </p> + <p> + In every part of Europe and America, down to a recent period, we find + pestilences resulting from carelessness or superstition still called + "inscrutable providences." As late as the end of the eighteenth century, + when great epidemics made fearful havoc in Austria, the main means against + them seem to have been grovelling before the image of St. Sebastian and + calling in special "witch-doctors"—that is, monks who cast out + devils. To seek the aid of physicians was, in the neighbourhood of these + monastic centres, very generally considered impious, and the enormous + death rate in such neighbourhoods was only diminished in the present + century, when scientific hygiene began to make its way. + </p> + <p> + The old view of pestilence had also its full course in Calvinistic + Scotland; the only difference being that, while in Roman Catholic + countries relief was sought by fetiches, gifts, processions, exorcisms, + burnings of witches, and other works of expiation, promoted by priests; in + Scotland, after the Reformation, it was sought in fast-days and executions + of witches promoted by Protestant elders. Accounts of the filthiness of + Scotch cities and villages, down to a period well within this century, + seem monstrous. All that in these days is swept into the sewers was in + those allowed to remain around the houses or thrown into the streets. The + old theological theory, that "vain is the help of man," checked scientific + thought and paralyzed sanitary endeavour. The result was natural: between + the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries thirty notable epidemics swept + the country, and some of them carried off multitudes; but as a rule these + never suggested sanitary improvement; they were called "visitations," + attributed to Divine wrath against human sin, and the work of the + authorities was to announce the particular sin concerned and to declaim + against it. Amazing theories were thus propounded—theories which led + to spasms of severity; and, in some of these, offences generally punished + much less severely were visited with death. Every pulpit interpreted the + ways of God to man in such seasons so as rather to increase than to + diminish the pestilence. The effect of thus seeking supernatural causes + rather than natural may be seen in such facts as the death by plague of + one fourth of the whole population of the city of Perth in a single year + of the fifteenth century, other towns suffering similarly both then and + afterward. + </p> + <p> + Here and there, physicians more wisely inspired endeavoured to push + sanitary measures, and in 1585 attempts were made to clean the streets of + Edinburgh; but the chroniclers tell us that "the magistrates and ministers + gave no heed." One sort of calamity, indeed, came in as a mercy—the + great fires which swept through the cities, clearing and cleaning them. + Though the town council of Edinburgh declared the noted fire of 1700 "a + fearful rebuke of God," it was observed that, after it had done its work, + disease and death were greatly diminished.(337) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (337) For the plague at Marseilles and its depopulation, see Henri +Martin, Histoire de France, vol. xv, especially document cited in +appendix; also Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap. xliii; also Rambaud. For +the resort to witch doctors in Austria against pestilence, down to +the end of the eighteenth century, see Biedermann, Deutschland im +Achtzehnten Jahrhundert. For the resort to St. Sebastian, see the +widespread editions of the Vita et Gesta Sancti Sebastiani, contra +pestem patroni, prefaced with commendations from bishops and other high +ecclesiastics. The edition in the Cornell University Library is that of +Augsburg, 1693. For the reign of filth and pestilence in Scotland, see +Charles Rogers, D. D., Social Life in Scotland, Edinburgh, 1884, vol. i, +pp. 305-316; see also Buckle's second volume. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0059" id="link2H_4_0059"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III. THE TRIUMPH OF SANITARY SCIENCE. + </h2> + <p> + But by those standing in the higher places of thought some glimpses of + scientific truth had already been obtained, and attempts at compromise + between theology and science in this field began to be made, not only by + ecclesiastics, but first of all, as far back as the seventeenth century, + by a man of science eminent both for attainments and character—Robert + Boyle. Inspired by the discoveries in other fields, which had swept away + so much of theological thought, he could no longer resist the conviction + that some epidemics are due—in his own words—"to a tragical + concourse of natural causes"; but he argued that some of these may be the + result of Divine interpositions provoked by human sins. As time went on, + great difficulties showed themselves in the way of this compromise—difficulties + theological not less than difficulties scientific. To a Catholic it was + more and more hard to explain the theological grounds why so many orthodox + cities, firm in the faith, were punished, and so many heretical cities + spared; and why, in regions devoted to the Church, the poorer people, + whose faith in theological fetiches was unquestioning, died in times of + pestilence like flies, while sceptics so frequently escaped. Difficulties + of the same sort beset devoted Protestants; they, too, might well ask why + it was that the devout peasantry in their humble cottages perished, while + so much larger a proportion of the more sceptical upper classes were + untouched. Gradually it dawned both upon Catholic and Protestant countries + that, if any sin be punished by pestilence, it is the sin of filthiness; + more and more it began to be seen by thinking men of both religions that + Wesley's great dictum stated even less than the truth; that not only was + "cleanliness akin to godliness," but that, as a means of keeping off + pestilence, it was far superior to godliness as godliness was then + generally understood.(338) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (338) For Boyle's attempt at compromise, see Discourse on the Air, in +his works, vol. iv, pp. 288, 289, cited by Buckle, vol. i, pp. 128, 129, +note. +</pre> + <p> + The recent history of sanitation in all civilized countries shows triumphs + which might well fill us with wonder, did there not rise within us a far + greater wonder that they were so long delayed. Amazing is it to see how + near the world has come again and again to discovering the key to the + cause and cure of pestilence. It is now a matter of the simplest + elementary knowledge that some of the worst epidemics are conveyed in + water. But this fact seems to have been discovered many times in human + history. In the Peloponnesian war the Athenians asserted that their + enemies had poisoned their cisterns; in the Middle Ages the people + generally declared that the Jews had poisoned their wells; and as late as + the cholera of 1832 the Parisian mob insisted that the water-carriers who + distributed water for drinking purposes from the Seine, polluted as it was + by sewage, had poisoned it, and in some cases murdered them on this + charge: so far did this feeling go that locked covers were sometimes + placed upon the water-buckets. Had not such men as Roger Bacon and his + long line of successors been thwarted by theological authority,—had + not such men as Thomas Aquinas, Vincent of Beauvais, and Albert the Great + been drawn or driven from the paths of science into the dark, tortuous + paths of theology, leading no whither,—the world to-day, at the end + of the nineteenth century, would have arrived at the solution of great + problems and the enjoyment of great results which will only be reached at + the end of the twentieth century, and even in generations more remote. + Diseases like typhoid fever, influenza and pulmonary consumption, scarlet + fever, diphtheria, pneumonia, and la grippe, which now carry off so many + most precious lives, would have long since ceased to scourge the world. + </p> + <p> + Still, there is one cause for satisfaction: the law governing the relation + of theology to disease is now well before the world, and it is seen in the + fact that, just in proportion as the world progressed from the sway of + Hippocrates to that of the ages of faith, so it progressed in the + frequency and severity of great pestilences; and that, on the other hand, + just in proportion as the world has receded from that period when theology + was all-pervading and all-controlling, plague after plague has + disappeared, and those remaining have become less and less frequent and + virulent.(339) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (339) For the charge of poisoning water and producing pestilence among +the Greeks, see Grote, History of Greece, vol. vi, p. 213. For a similar +charge against the Jews in the Middle Ages, see various histories +already cited; and for the great popular prejudice against +water-carriers at Paris in recent times, see the larger recent French +histories. +</pre> + <p> + The recent history of hygiene in all countries shows a long series of + victories, and these may well be studied in Great Britain and the United + States. In the former, though there had been many warnings from eminent + physicians, and above all in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, + from men like Caius, Mead, and Pringle, the result was far short of what + might have been gained; and it was only in the year 1838 that a systematic + sanitary effort was begun in England by the public authorities. The state + of things at that time, though by comparison with the Middle Ages happy, + was, by comparison with what has since been gained, fearful: the death + rate among all classes was high, but among the poor it was ghastly. Out of + seventy-seven thousand paupers in London during the years 1837 and 1838, + fourteen thousand were suffering from fever, and of these nearly six + thousand from typhus. In many other parts of the British Islands the + sanitary condition was no better. A noble body of men grappled with the + problem, and in a few years one of these rose above his fellows—the + late Edwin Chadwick. The opposition to his work was bitter, and, though + many churchmen aided him, the support given by theologians and + ecclesiastics as a whole was very far short of what it should have been. + Too many of them were occupied in that most costly and most worthless of + all processes, "the saving of souls" by the inculcation of dogma. Yet some + of the higher ecclesiastics and many of the lesser clergy did much, + sometimes risking their lives, and one of them, Sidney Godolphin Osborne, + deserves lasting memory for his struggle to make known the sanitary wants + of the peasantry. + </p> + <p> + Chadwick began to be widely known in 1848 as a member of the Board of + Health, and was driven out for a time for overzeal; but from one point or + another, during forty years, he fought the opposition, developed the new + work, and one of the best exhibits of its results is shown in his address + before the Sanitary Conference at Brighton in 1888. From this and other + perfectly trustworthy sources some idea may be gained of the triumph of + the scientific over the theological method of dealing with disease, + whether epidemic or sporadic. + </p> + <p> + In the latter half of the seventeenth century the annual mortality of + London is estimated at not less than eighty in a thousand; about the + middle of this century it stood at twenty-four in a thousand; in 1889 it + stood at less than eighteen in a thousand; and in many parts the most + recent statistics show that it has been brought down to fourteen or + fifteen in a thousand. A quarter of a century ago the death rate from + disease in the Royal Guards at London was twenty in a thousand; in 1888 it + had been reduced to six in a thousand. In the army generally it had been + seventeen in a thousand, but it has been reduced until it now stands at + eight. In the old Indian army it had been sixty-nine in a thousand, but of + late it has been brought down first to twenty, and finally to fourteen. + Mr. Chadwick in his speech proved that much more might be done, for he + called attention to the German army, where the death rate from disease has + been reduced to between five and six in a thousand. The Public Health Act + having been passed in 1875, the death rate in England among men fell, + between 1871 and 1880, more than four in a thousand, and among women more + than six in a thousand. In the decade between 1851 and 1860 there died of + diseases attributable to defective drainage and impure water over four + thousand persons in every million throughout England: these numbers have + declined until in 1888 there died less than two thousand in every million. + The most striking diminution of the deaths from such causes was found in + 1891, in the case of typhoid fever, that diminution being fifty per cent. + As to the scourge which, next to plagues like the Black Death, was + formerly the most dreaded—smallpox—there died of it in London + during the year 1890 just one person. Drainage in Bristol reduced the + death rate by consumption from 4.4 to 2.3; at Cardiff, from 3.47 to 2.31; + and in all England and Wales, from 2.68 in 1851 to 1.55 in 1888. + </p> + <p> + What can be accomplished by better sanitation is also seen to-day by a + comparison between the death rate among the children outside and inside + the charity schools. The death rate among those outside in 1881 was twelve + in a thousand; while inside, where the children were under sanitary + regulations maintained by competent authorities, it has been brought down + first to eight, then to four, and finally to less than three in a + thousand. + </p> + <p> + In view of statistics like these, it becomes clear that Edwin Chadwick and + his compeers among the sanitary authorities have in half a century done + far more to reduce the rate of disease and death than has been done in + fifteen hundred years by all the fetiches which theological reasoning + could devise or ecclesiastical power enforce. + </p> + <p> + Not less striking has been the history of hygiene in France: thanks to the + decline of theological control over the universities, to the abolition of + monasteries, and to such labours in hygienic research and improvement as + those of Tardieu, Levy, and Bouchardat, a wondrous change has been wrought + in public health. Statistics carefully kept show that the mean length of + human life has been remarkably increased. In the eighteenth century it was + but twenty-three years; from 1825 to 1830 it was thirty-two years and + eight months; and since 1864, thirty-seven years and six months. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0060" id="link2H_4_0060"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IV. THE RELATION OF SANITARY SCIENCE TO RELIGION. + </h2> + <p> + The question may now arise whether this progress in sanitary science has + been purchased at any real sacrifice of religion in its highest sense. One + piece of recent history indicates an answer to this question. The Second + Empire in France had its head in Napoleon III, a noted Voltairean. At the + climax of his power he determined to erect an Academy of Music which + should be the noblest building of its kind. It was projected on a scale + never before known, at least in modern times, and carried on for years, + millions being lavished upon it. At the same time the emperor determined + to rebuild the Hotel-Dieu, the great Paris hospital; this, too, was + projected on a greater scale than anything of the kind ever before known, + and also required millions. But in the erection of these two buildings the + emperor's determination was distinctly made known, that with the highest + provision for aesthetic enjoyment there should be a similar provision, + moving on parallel lines, for the relief of human suffering. This plan was + carried out to the letter: the Palace of the Opera and the Hotel-Dieu went + on with equal steps, and the former was not allowed to be finished before + the latter. Among all the "most Christian kings" of the house of Bourbon + who had preceded him for five hundred years, history shows no such + obedience to the religious and moral sense of the nation. Catharine de' + Medici and her sons, plunging the nation into the great wars of religion, + never showed any such feeling; Louis XIV, revoking the Edict of Nantes for + the glory of God, and bringing the nation to sorrow during many + generations, never dreamed of making the construction of his palaces and + public buildings wait upon the demands of charity. Louis XV, so + subservient to the Church in all things, never betrayed the slightest + consciousness that, while making enormous expenditures to gratify his own + and the national vanity, he ought to carry on works, pari passu, for + charity. Nor did the French nation, at those periods when it was most + largely under the control of theological considerations, seem to have any + inkling of the idea that nation or monarch should make provision for + relief from human suffering, to justify provision for the sumptuous + enjoyment of art: it was reserved for the second half of the nineteenth + century to develop this feeling so strongly, though quietly, that Napoleon + III, notoriously an unbeliever in all orthodoxy, was obliged to recognise + it and to set this great example. + </p> + <p> + Nor has the recent history of the United States been less fruitful in + lessons. Yellow fever, which formerly swept not only Southern cities but + even New York and Philadelphia, has now been almost entirely warded off. + Such epidemics as that in Memphis a few years since, and the immunity of + the city from such visitations since its sanitary condition was changed by + Mr. Waring, are a most striking object lesson to the whole country. + Cholera, which again and again swept the country, has ceased to be feared + by the public at large. Typhus fever, once so deadly, is now rarely heard + of. Curious is it to find that some of the diseases which in the olden + time swept off myriads on myriads in every country, now cause fewer deaths + than some diseases thought of little account, and for the cure of which + people therefore rely, to their cost, on quackery instead of medical + science. + </p> + <p> + This development of sanitary science and hygiene in the United States has + also been coincident with a marked change in the attitude of the American + pulpit as regards the theory of disease. In this country, as in others, + down to a period within living memory, deaths due to want of sanitary + precautions were constantly dwelt upon in funeral sermons as "results of + national sin," or as "inscrutable Providences." That view has mainly + passed away among the clergy of the more enlightened parts of the country, + and we now find them, as a rule, active in spreading useful ideas as to + the prevention of disease. The religious press has been especially + faithful in this respect, carrying to every household more just ideas of + sanitary precautions and hygienic living. + </p> + <p> + The attitude even of many among the most orthodox rulers in church and + state has been changed by facts like these. Lord Palmerston refusing the + request of the Scotch clergy that a fast day be appointed to ward off + cholera, and advising them to go home and clean their streets,—the + devout Emperor William II forbidding prayer-meetings in a similar + emergency, on the ground that they led to neglect of practical human means + of help,—all this is in striking contrast to the older methods. + </p> + <p> + Well worthy of note is the ground taken in 1893, at Philadelphia, by an + eminent divine of the Protestant Episcopal Church. The Bishop of + Pennsylvania having issued a special call to prayer in order to ward off + the cholera, this clergyman refused to respond to the call, declaring that + to do so, in the filthy condition of the streets then prevailing in + Philadelphia, would be blasphemous. + </p> + <p> + In summing up the whole subject, we see that in this field, as in so many + others, the triumph of scientific thought has gradually done much to + evolve in the world not only a theology but also a religious spirit more + and more worthy of the goodness of God and of the destiny of man.(340) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (340) On the improvement in sanitation in London and elsewhere in the +north of Europe, see the editorial and Report of the Conference on +Sanitation at Brighton, given in the London Times of August 27, 1888. +For the best authorities on the general subject in England, see Sir John +Simon on English Sanitary Institutions, 1890; also his published Health +Reports for 1887, cited in the Edinburgh Review for January, 1891. See +also Parkes's Hygiene, passim. For the great increase in the mean length +of life in France under better hygienic conditions, see Rambaud, La +Civilisation contemporaine en France, p. 682. For the approach to +depopulation at Memphis, under the cesspool system in 1878, see Parkes, +Hygiene, American appendix, p. 397. For the facts brought out in the +investigation of the department of the city of New York by the Committee +of the State Senate, of which the present writer was a member, see New +York Senate Documents for 1865. For decrease of death rate in New York +city under the new Board of Health, beginning in 1866, and especially +among children, see Buck, Hygiene and Popular Health, New York, 1879, +vol. ii, p. 573; and for wise remarks on religious duties during +pestilence, see ibid., vol. ii, p. 579. For a contrast between the old +and new ideas regarding pestilences, see Charles Kingsley in Fraser's +Magazine, vol. lviii, p. 134; also the sermon of Dr. Burns, in 1875, +at the Cathedral of Glasgow before the Social Science Congress. For a +particularly bright and valuable statement of the triumphs of modern +sanitation, see Mrs. Plunkett's article in The Popular Science Monthly +for June, 1891. For the reply of Lord Palmerston to the Scotch clergy, +see the well-known passage in Buckle. For the order of the Emperor +William, see various newspapers for September, 1892, and especially +Public Opinion for September 24th. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XV. FROM "DEMONIACAL POSSESSION" TO INSANITY. + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0062" id="link2H_4_0062"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I. THEOLOGICAL IDEAS OF LUNACY AND ITS TREATMENT. + </h2> + <p> + Of all the triumphs won by science for humanity, few have been + farther-reaching in good effects than the modern treatment of the insane. + But this is the result of a struggle long and severe between two great + forces. On one side have stood the survivals of various superstitions, the + metaphysics of various philosophies, the dogmatism of various theologies, + the literal interpretation of various sacred books, and especially of our + own—all compacted into a creed that insanity is mainly or largely + demoniacal possession; on the other side has stood science, gradually + accumulating proofs that insanity is always the result of physical + disease. + </p> + <p> + I purpose in this chapter to sketch, as briefly as I may, the history of + this warfare, or rather of this evolution of truth out of error. + </p> + <p> + Nothing is more simple and natural, in the early stages of civilization, + than belief in occult, self-conscious powers of evil. Troubles and + calamities come upon man; his ignorance of physical laws forbids him to + attribute them to physical causes; he therefore attributes them sometimes + to the wrath of a good being, but more frequently to the malice of an evil + being. + </p> + <p> + Especially is this the case with diseases. The real causes of disease are + so intricate that they are reached only after ages of scientific labour; + hence they, above all, have been attributed to the influence of evil + spirits.(341) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (341) On the general attribution of disease to demoniacal influence, see +Sprenger, History of Medicine, passim (note, for a later attitude, vol. +ii, pp. 150-170, 178); Calmeil, De la Folie, Paris, 1845, vol. i, pp. +104, 105; Esquirol, Des Maladies Mentales, Paris, 1838, vol. i, p. 482; +also Tylor, Primitive Culture. For a very plain and honest statement of +this view in our own sacred books, see Oort, Hooykaas, and Kuenen, +The Bible for Young People, English translation, chap. v, p. 167 and +following; also Farrar's Life of Christ, chap. xvii. For this idea +in Greece and elsewhere, see Maury, La Magie, etc., vol. iii, p. 276, +giving, among other citations, one from book v of the Odyssey. On the +influence of Platonism, see Esquirol and others, as above—the main +passage cited is from the Phaedo. For the devotion of the early fathers +and doctors to this idea, see citations from Eusebius, Lactantius, St. +Jerome, St. Augustine, St. John Chrysostom, St. Gregory Nazianzen, +in Tissot, L'Imagination, p. 369; also Jacob (i.e., Paul Lecroix), +Croyances Populaires, p. 183. For St. Augustine, see also his De +Civitate Dei, lib. xxii, chap. vii, and his Enarration in Psal., cxxxv, +1. For the breaking away of the religious orders in Italy from the +entire supremacy of this idea, see Becavin, L'Ecole de Salerne, Paris, +1888; also Daremberg, Histoire de la Medecine. Even so late as the +Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther maintained (Table Talk, Hazlitt's +translation, London, 1872, pp. 250, 256) that "Satan produces all the +maladies which afflict mankind." +</pre> + <p> + But, if ordinary diseases were likely to be attributed to diabolical + agency, how much more diseases of the brain, and especially the more + obscure of these! These, indeed, seemed to the vast majority of mankind + possible only on the theory of Satanic intervention: any approach to a + true theory of the connection between physical causes and mental results + is one of the highest acquisitions of science. + </p> + <p> + Here and there, during the whole historic period, keen men had obtained an + inkling of the truth; but to the vast multitude, down to the end of the + seventeenth century, nothing was more clear than that insanity is, in many + if not in most cases, demoniacal possession. + </p> + <p> + Yet at a very early date, in Greece and Rome, science had asserted itself, + and a beginning had been made which seemed destined to bring a large + fruitage of blessings.(342) In the fifth century before the Christian era, + Hippocrates of Cos asserted the great truth that all madness is simply + disease of the brain, thereby beginning a development of truth and mercy + which lasted nearly a thousand years. In the first century after Christ, + Aretaeus carried these ideas yet further, observed the phenomena of + insanity with great acuteness, and reached yet more valuable results. Near + the beginning of the following century, Soranus went still further in the + same path, giving new results of research, and strengthening scientific + truth. Toward the end of the same century a new epoch was ushered in by + Galen, under whom the same truth was developed yet further, and the path + toward merciful treatment of the insane made yet more clear. In the third + century Celius Aurelianus received this deposit of precious truth, + elaborated it, and brought forth the great idea which, had theology, + citing biblical texts, not banished it, would have saved fifteen centuries + of cruelty—an idea not fully recognised again till near the + beginning of the present century—the idea that insanity is brain + disease, and that the treatment of it must be gentle and kind. In the + sixth century Alexander of Tralles presented still more fruitful + researches, and taught the world how to deal with melancholia; and, + finally, in the seventh century, this great line of scientific men, + working mainly under pagan auspices, was closed by Paul of Aegina, who + under the protection of Caliph Omar made still further observations, but, + above all, laid stress on the cure of madness as a disease, and on the + absolute necessity of mild treatment. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (342) It is significant of this scientific attitude that the Greek word +for superstition means, literally, fear of gods or demons. +</pre> + <p> + Such was this great succession in the apostolate of science: evidently no + other has ever shown itself more directly under Divine grace, + illumination, and guidance. It had given to the world what might have been + one of its greatest blessings.(343) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (343) For authorities regarding this development of scientific truth +and mercy in antiquity, see especially Krafft-Ebing, Lehrbuch des +Psychiatrie, Stuttgart, 1888, p. 40 and the pages following; Trelat, +Recherches Historiques sur la Folie, Paris, 1839; Semelaigne, +L'Alienation mentale dans l'Antiquitie, Paris, 1869; Dagron, Des +Alienes, Paris, 1875; also Calmeil, De la Folie, Sprenger, and +especially Isensee, Geschichte der Medicin, Berlin, 1840. +</pre> + <p> + This evolution of divine truth was interrupted by theology. There set into + the early Church a current of belief which was destined to bring all these + noble acquisitions of science and religion to naught, and, during + centuries, to inflict tortures, physical and mental, upon hundreds of + thousands of innocent men and women—a belief which held its cruel + sway for nearly eighteen centuries; and this belief was that madness was + mainly or largely possession by the devil. + </p> + <p> + This idea of diabolic agency in mental disease had grown luxuriantly in + all the Oriental sacred literatures. In the series of Assyrian + mythological tablets in which we find those legends of the Creation, the + Fall, the Flood, and other early conceptions from which the Hebrews so + largely drew the accounts wrought into the book of Genesis, have been + discovered the formulas for driving out the evil spirits which cause + disease. In the Persian theology regarding the struggle of the great + powers of good and evil this idea was developed to its highest point. From + these and other ancient sources the Jews naturally received this addition + to their earlier view: the Mocker of the Garden of Eden became Satan, with + legions of evil angels at his command; and the theory of diabolic causes + of mental disease took a firm place in our sacred books. Such cases in the + Old Testament as the evil spirit in Saul, which we now see to have been + simply melancholy—and, in the New Testament, the various accounts of + the casting out of devils, through which is refracted the beautiful and + simple story of that power by which Jesus of Nazareth soothed perturbed + minds by his presence or quelled outbursts of madness by his words, give + examples of this. In Greece, too, an idea akin to this found lodgment both + in the popular belief and in the philosophy of Plato and Socrates; and + though, as we have seen, the great leaders in medical science had taught + with more or less distinctness that insanity is the result of physical + disease, there was a strong popular tendency to attribute the more + troublesome cases of it to hostile spiritual influence.(344) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (344) For the exorcism against disease found at Ninevah, see G. Smith, +Delitzsch's German translation, p. 34. For a very interesting passage +regarding the representaion of a diabolic personage on a Babylonian +bronze, and for a very frank statement regarding the transmission of +ideas regarding Satanic power to our sacred books, see Sayce, Herodotus, +appendix ii, p. 393. It is, indeed, extremely doubtful whether Plato +himself or his contemporaries knew anything of evil demons, this +conception probably coming into the Greek world, as into the Latin, +with the Oriental influences that began to prevail about the time of the +birth of Christ; but to the early Christians, a demon was a demon, and +Plato's, good or bad, were pagan, and therefore devils. The Greek word +"epilepsy" is itself a survival of the old belief, fossilized in a word, +since its literal meaning refers to the SEIZURE of the patient by evil +spirits. +</pre> + <p> + From all these sources, but especially from our sacred books and the + writings of Plato, this theory that mental disease is caused largely or + mainly by Satanic influence passed on into the early Church. In the + apostolic times no belief seems to have been more firmly settled. The + early fathers and doctors in the following age universally accepted it, + and the apologists generally spoke of the power of casting out devils as a + leading proof of the divine origin of the Christian religion. + </p> + <p> + This belief took firm hold upon the strongest men. The case of St. Gregory + the Great is typical. He was a pope of exceedingly broad mind for his + time, and no one will think him unjustly reckoned one of the four Doctors + of the Western Church. Yet he solemnly relates that a nun, having eaten + some lettuce without making the sign of the cross, swallowed a devil, and + that, when commanded by a holy man to come forth, the devil replied: "How + am I to blame? I was sitting on the lettuce, and this woman, not having + made the sign of the cross, ate me along with it."(345) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (345) For a striking statement of the Jewish belief in diabolical +interference, see Josephus, De Bello Judaico, vii, 6, iii; also his +Antiquities, vol. viii, Whiston's translation. On the "devil cast out," +in Mark ix, 17-29, as undoubtedly a case of epilepsy, see Cherullier, +Essai sur l'Epilepsie; also Maury, art. Demonique in the Encyclopedie +Moderne. In one text, at least, the popular belief is perfectly shown as +confounding madness and possession: "He hath a devil, and is mad," John +x, 20. Among the multitude of texts, those most relied upon were Matthew +viii, 28, and Luke x, 17; and for the use of fetiches in driving out +evil spirits, the account of the cures wrought by touching the garments +of St. Paul in Acts xix, 12. On the general subject, see authorities +already given, and as a typical passage, Tertullian, Ad. Scap., ii. +For the very gross view taken by St. Basil, see Cudworth, Intellectual +System, vol. ii, p. 648; also Archdeacon Farrar's Life of Christ. For +the case related by St. Gregory the Great with comical details, see the +Exempla of Archbishop Jacques de Vitrie, edited by Prof. T. F. Crane, +of Cornell University, p. 59, art. cxxx. For a curious presentation +of Greek views, see Lelut, Le demon Socrate, Paris, 1856; and for +the transmission of these to Christianity, see the same, p. 201 and +following. +</pre> + <p> + As a result of this idea, the Christian Church at an early period in its + existence virtually gave up the noble conquests of Greek and Roman science + in this field, and originated, for persons supposed to be possessed, a + regular discipline, developed out of dogmatic theology. But during the + centuries before theology and ecclesiasticism had become fully dominant + this discipline was, as a rule, gentle and useful. The afflicted, when not + too violent, were generally admitted to the exercises of public worship, + and a kindly system of cure was attempted, in which prominence was given + to holy water, sanctified ointments, the breath or spittle of the priest, + the touching of relics, visits to holy places, and submission to mild + forms of exorcism. There can be no doubt that many of these things, when + judiciously used in that spirit of love and gentleness and devotion + inherited by the earlier disciples from "the Master," produced good + effects in soothing disturbed minds and in aiding their cure. + </p> + <p> + Among the thousands of fetiches of various sorts then resorted to may be + named, as typical, the Holy Handkerchief of Besancon. During many + centuries multitudes came from far and near to touch it; for, it was + argued, if touching the garments of St. Paul at Ephesus had cured the + diseased, how much more might be expected of a handkerchief of the Lord + himself! + </p> + <p> + With ideas of this sort was mingled a vague belief in medical treatment, + and out of this mixture were evolved such prescriptions as the following: + </p> + <p> + "If an elf or a goblin come, smear his forehead with this salve, put it on + his eyes, cense him with incense, and sign him frequently with the sign of + the cross." + </p> + <p> + "For a fiend-sick man: When a devil possesses a man, or controls him from + within with disease, a spew-drink of lupin, bishopswort, henbane, garlic. + Pound these together, add ale and holy water." + </p> + <p> + And again: "A drink for a fiend-sick man, to be drunk out of a church + bell: Githrife, cynoglossum, yarrow, lupin, flower-de-luce, fennel, + lichen, lovage. Work up to a drink with clear ale, sing seven masses over + it, add garlic and holy water, and let the possessed sing the Beati + Immaculati; then let him drink the dose out of a church bell, and let the + priest sing over him the Domine Sancte Pater Omnipotens."(346) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (346) See Cockayne, Leechdoms, Wort-cunning, and Star-Craft of Early +England in the Rolls Series, vol. ii, p. 177; also pp. 355, 356. For the +great value of priestly saliva, see W. W. Story's essays. +</pre> + <p> + Had this been the worst treatment of lunatics developed in the theological + atmosphere of the Middle Ages, the world would have been spared some of + the most terrible chapters in its history; but, unfortunately, the idea of + the Satanic possession of lunatics led to attempts to punish the + indwelling demon. As this theological theory and practice became more + fully developed, and ecclesiasticism more powerful to enforce it, all + mildness began to disappear; the admonitions to gentle treatment by the + great pagan and Moslem physicians were forgotten, and the treatment of + lunatics tended more and more toward severity: more and more generally it + was felt that cruelty to madmen was punishment of the devil residing + within or acting upon them. + </p> + <p> + A few strong churchmen and laymen made efforts to resist this tendency. As + far back as the fourth century, Nemesius, Bishop of Emesa, accepted the + truth as developed by pagan physicians, and aided them in strengthening + it. In the seventh century, a Lombard code embodied a similar effort. In + the eighth century, one of Charlemagne's capitularies seems to have had a + like purpose. In the ninth century, that great churchman and statesman, + Agobard, Archbishop of Lyons, superior to his time in this as in so many + other things, tried to make right reason prevail in this field; and, near + the beginning of the tenth century, Regino, Abbot of Prum, in the diocese + of Treves, insisted on treating possession as disease. But all in vain; + the current streaming most directly from sundry texts in the Christian + sacred books, and swollen by theology, had become overwhelming.(347) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (347) For a very thorough and interesting statement on the general +subject, see Kirchhoff, Beziehungen des Damonen- und Hexenwesens zur +deutschen Irrenpflege in the Allgemeine Zeitschrift fur Psychiatrie, +Berlin, 1888, Bd. xliv, Heft 25. For Roman Catholic authority, see Addis +and Arnold, Catholic Dictionary, article Energumens. For a brief and +eloquent summary, see Krefft-Ebing, Lehrbuch der Psychiatrie, as above; +and for a clear view of the transition from pagan mildness in the care +of the insane to severity and cruelty under the Christian Church, see +Maudsley, The Pathology of the Mind, London, 1879, p. 523. See also +Buchmann, Die undfreie und die freie Kirche, Bresleau, 1873, p. 251. +For other citations, see Kirchoff, as above, pp. 334-346. For Bishop +Nemesius, see Trelat, p. 48. For an account of Agobard's general +position in regard to this and allied superstitions, see Reginald Lane +Poole's Illustrations of the History of Medieval Thought, London, 1884. +</pre> + <p> + The first great tributary poured into this stream, as we approach the + bloom of the Middle Ages, appears to have come from the brain of Michael + Psellus. Mingling scriptural texts, Platonic philosophy, and theological + statements by great doctors of the Church, with wild utterances obtained + from lunatics, he gave forth, about the beginning of the twelfth century, + a treatise on The Work of Demons. Sacred science was vastly enriched + thereby in various ways; but two of his conclusions, the results of his + most profound thought, enforced by theologians and popularized by + preachers, soon took special hold upon the thinking portion of the people + at large. The first of these, which he easily based upon Scripture and St. + Basil, was that, since all demons suffer by material fire and brimstone, + they must have material bodies; the second was that, since all demons are + by nature cold, they gladly seek a genial warmth by entering the bodies of + men and beasts.(348) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (348) See Baas and Werner, cited by Kirchhoff, as above; also Lecky, +Rationalism in Europe, vol. i, p. 68, and note, New York, 1884. As to +Basil's belief in the corporeality of devils, see his Commentary on +Isaiah, cap. i. +</pre> + <p> + Fed by this stream of thought, and developed in the warm atmosphere of + medieval devotion, the idea of demoniacal possession as the main source of + lunacy grew and blossomed and bore fruit in noxious luxuriance. + </p> + <p> + There had, indeed, come into the Middle Ages an inheritance of scientific + thought. The ideas of Hippocrates, Celius Aurelianus, Galen, and their + followers, were from time to time revived; the Arabian physicians, the + School of Salerno, such writers as Salicetus and Guy de Chauliac, and even + some of the religious orders, did something to keep scientific doctrines + alive; but the tide of theological thought was too strong; it became + dangerous even to seem to name possible limits to diabolical power. To + deny Satan was atheism; and perhaps nothing did so much to fasten the + epithet "atheist" upon the medical profession as the suspicion that it did + not fully acknowledge diabolical interference in mental disease. Following + in the lines of the earlier fathers, St. Anselm, Abelard, St. Thomas + Aquinas, Vincent of Beauvais, all the great doctors in the medieval + Church, some of them in spite of occasional misgivings, upheld the idea + that insanity is largely or mainly demoniacal possession, basing their + belief steadily on the sacred Scriptures; and this belief was followed up + in every quarter by more and more constant citation of the text "Thou + shalt not suffer a witch to live." No other text of Scripture—save + perhaps one—has caused the shedding of so much innocent blood. + </p> + <p> + As we look over the history of the Middle Ages, we do, indeed, see another + growth from which one might hope much; for there were two great streams of + influence in the Church, and never were two powers more unlike each other. + </p> + <p> + On one side was the spirit of Christianity, as it proceeded from the heart + and mind of its blessed Founder, immensely powerful in aiding the + evolution of religious thought and effort, and especially of provision for + the relief of suffering by religious asylums and tender care. Nothing + better expresses this than the touching words inscribed upon a great + medieval hospital, "Christo in pauperibus suis." But on the other side was + the theological theory—proceeding, as we have seen, from the + survival of ancient superstitions, and sustained by constant reference to + the texts in our sacred books—that many, and probably most, of the + insane were possessed by the devil or in league with him, and that the + cruel treatment of lunatics was simply punishment of the devil and his + minions. By this current of thought was gradually developed one of the + greatest masses of superstitious cruelty that has ever afflicted humanity. + At the same time the stream of Christian endeavour, so far as the insane + were concerned, was almost entirely cut off. In all the beautiful + provision during the Middle Ages for the alleviation of human suffering, + there was for the insane almost no care. Some monasteries, indeed, gave + them refuge. We hear of a charitable work done for them at the London + Bethlehem Hospital in the thirteenth century, at Geneva in the fifteenth, + at Marseilles in the sixteenth, by the Black Penitents in the south of + France, by certain Franciscans in northern France, by the Alexian Brothers + on the Rhine, and by various agencies in other parts of Europe; but, + curiously enough, the only really important effort in the Christian Church + was stimulated by the Mohammedans. Certain monks, who had much to do with + them in redeeming Christian slaves, found in the fifteenth century what + John Howard found in the eighteenth, that the Arabs and Turks made a large + and merciful provision for lunatics, such as was not seen in Christian + lands; and this example led to better establishments in Spain and Italy. + </p> + <p> + All honour to this work and to the men who engaged in it; but, as a rule, + these establishments were few and poor, compared with those for other + diseases, and they usually degenerated into "mad-houses," where devils + were cast out mainly by cruelty.(349) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (349) For a very full and learned, if somewhat one-sided, account of the +earlier effects of this stream of charitable thought, see Tollemer, Des +Origines de la Charite Catholique, Paris, 1858. It is instructive to +note that, while this book is very full in regard to the action of the +Church on slavery and on provision for the widows and orphans, the sick, +infirm, captives, and lepers, there is hardly a trace of any care for +the insane. This same want is incidentally shown by a typical example +in Kriegk, Aerzte, Heilanstalten und Geisteskranke im mittelalterlichen +Frankfurt, Frankfurt a. M., 1863, pp. 16, 17; also Kirschhof, pp. 396, +397. On the general subject, see Semelaigne, as above, p. 214; also +Calmeil, vol. i, pp. 116, 117. For the effect of Muslem example in Spain +and Italy, see Krafft-Ebing, as above, p. 45, note. +</pre> + <p> + The first main weapon against the indwelling Satan continued to be the + exorcism; but under the influence of inferences from Scripture farther and + farther fetched, and of theological reasoning more and more subtle, it + became something very different from the gentle procedure of earlier + times, and some description of this great weapon at the time of its + highest development will throw light on the laws which govern the growth + of theological reasoning, as well as upon the main subject in hand. + </p> + <p> + A fundamental premise in the fully developed exorcism was that, according + to sacred Scripture, a main characteristic of Satan is pride. Pride led + him to rebel; for pride he was cast down; therefore the first thing to do, + in driving him out of a lunatic, was to strike a fatal blow at his pride,—to + disgust him. + </p> + <p> + This theory was carried out logically, to the letter. The treatises on the + subject simply astound one by their wealth of blasphemous and obscene + epithets which it was allowable for the exorcist to use in casting out + devils. The Treasury of Exorcisms contains hundreds of pages packed with + the vilest epithets which the worst imagination could invent for the + purpose of overwhelming the indwelling Satan.(350) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (350) Thesaurus Exorcismorum atque Conjurationum terribilium, +potentissimorum, efficacissimorum, cum PRACTICA probatissima: quibus +spiritus maligni, Daemones Maleficiaque omnia de Corporibus humanis +obsessis, tanquam Flagellis Fustibusque fugantur, expelluntur,... +Cologne, 1626. Many of the books of the exorcists were put upon the +various indexes of the Church, but this, the richest collection of all, +and including nearly all those condemned, was not prohibited until +1709. Scarcely less startling manuals continued even later in use; and +exorcisms adapted to every emergency may of course still be found in all +the Benedictionals of the Church, even the latest. As an example, see +the Manuale Benedictionum, published by the Bishop of Passau in 1849, or +the Exorcismus in Satanam, etc., issued in 1890 by the present Pope, and +now on sale at the shop of the Propoganda in Rome. +</pre> + <p> + Some of those decent enough to be printed in these degenerate days ran as + follows: + </p> + <p> + "Thou lustful and stupid one,... thou lean sow, famine-stricken and most + impure,... thou wrinkled beast, thou mangy beast, thou beast of all beasts + the most beastly,... thou mad spirit,... thou bestial and foolish + drunkard,... most greedy wolf,... most abominable whisperer,... thou sooty + spirit from Tartarus!... I cast thee down, O Tartarean boor, into the + infernal kitchen!... Loathsome cobbler,... dingy collier,... filthy sow + (scrofa stercorata),... perfidious boar,... envious crocodile,... + malodorous drudge,... wounded basilisk,... rust-coloured asp,... swollen + toad,... entangled spider,... lousy swine-herd (porcarie pedicose),... + lowest of the low,... cudgelled ass," etc. + </p> + <p> + But, in addition to this attempt to disgust Satan's pride with + blackguardism, there was another to scare him with tremendous words. For + this purpose, thunderous names, from Hebrew and Greek, were imported, such + as Acharon, Eheye, Schemhamphora, Tetragrammaton, Homoousion, Athanatos, + Ischiros, Aecodes, and the like.(351) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (351) See the Conjuratio on p. 300 of the Thesaurus, and the general +directions given on pp. 251, 251. +</pre> + <p> + Efforts were also made to drive him out with filthy and rank-smelling + drugs; and, among those which can be mentioned in a printed article, we + may name asafoetida, sulphur, squills, etc., which were to be burned under + his nose. + </p> + <p> + Still further to plague him, pictures of the devil were to be spat upon, + trampled under foot by people of low condition, and sprinkled with foul + compounds. + </p> + <p> + But these were merely preliminaries to the exorcism proper. In this the + most profound theological thought and sacred science of the period + culminated. + </p> + <p> + Most of its forms were childish, but some rise to almost Miltonic + grandeur. As an example of the latter, we may take the following: + </p> + <p> + "By the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ, which God hath given to make known + unto his servants those things which are shortly to be; and hath + signified, sending by his angel,... I exorcise you, ye angels of untold + perversity! + </p> + <p> + "By the seven golden candlesticks,... and by one like unto the Son of man, + standing in the midst of the candlesticks; by his voice, as the voice of + many waters;... by his words, 'I am living, who was dead; and behold, I + live forever and ever; and I have the keys of death and of hell,' I say + unto you, Depart, O angels that show the way to eternal perdition!" + </p> + <p> + Besides these, were long litanies of billingsgate, cursing, and + threatening. One of these "scourging" exorcisms runs partly as follows: + </p> + <p> + "May Agyos strike thee, as he did Egypt, with frogs!... May all the devils + that are thy foes rush forth upon thee, and drag thee down to hell!... + May... Tetragrammaton... drive thee forth and stone thee, as Israel did to + Achan!... May the Holy One trample on thee and hang thee up in an infernal + fork, as was done to the five kings of the Amorites!... May God set a nail + to your skull, and pound it in with a hammer, as Jael did unto Sisera!... + May... Sother... break thy head and cut off thy hands, as was done to the + cursed Dagon!... May God hang thee in a hellish yoke, as seven men were + hanged by the sons of Saul!" And so on, through five pages of + close-printed Latin curses.(352) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (352) Thesaurus Exorcismorum, pp. 812-817. +</pre> + <p> + Occasionally the demon is reasoned with, as follows: "O obstinate, + accursed, fly!... why do you stop and hold back, when you know that your + strength is lost on Christ? For it is hard for thee to kick against the + pricks; and, verily, the longer it takes you to go, the worse it will go + with you. Begone, then: take flight, thou venomous hisser, thou lying + worm, thou begetter of vipers!"(353) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (353) Ibid., p. 859. +</pre> + <p> + This procedure and its results were recognised as among the glories of the + Church. As typical, we may mention an exorcism directed by a certain + Bishop of Beauvais, which was so effective that five devils gave up + possession of a sufferer and signed their names, each for himself and his + subordinate imps, to an agreement that the possessed should be molested no + more. So, too, the Jesuit fathers at Vienna, in 1583, gloried in the fact + that in such a contest they had cast out twelve thousand six hundred and + fifty-two living devils. The ecclesiastical annals of the Middle Ages, + and, indeed, of a later period, abound in boasts of such "mighty + works."(354) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (354) In my previous chapters, especially that on meteorology, I have +quoted extensively from the original treatises, of which a very large +collection is in my posession; but in this chapter I have mainly availed +myself of the copious translations given by M. H. Dziewicki, in his +excellent article in The Nineteenth Century for October, 1888, entitled +Exorcizo Te. For valuable citations on the origin and spread of +exorcism, see Lecky's European Morals (third English edition), vol. i, +pp. 379-385. +</pre> + <p> + Such was the result of a thousand years of theological reasoning, by the + strongest minds in Europe, upon data partly given in Scripture and partly + inherited from paganism, regarding Satan and his work among men. + </p> + <p> + Under the guidance of theology, always so severe against "science falsely + so called," the world had come a long way indeed from the soothing + treatment of the possessed by him who bore among the noblest of his titles + that of "The Great Physician." The result was natural: the treatment of + the insane fell more and more into the hands of the jailer, the torturer, + and the executioner. + </p> + <p> + To go back for a moment to the beginnings of this unfortunate development. + In spite of the earlier and more kindly tendency in the Church, the Synod + of Ancyra, as early as 314 A.D., commanded the expulsion of possessed + persons from the Church; the Visigothic Christians whipped them; and + Charlemagne, in spite of some good enactments, imprisoned them. Men and + women, whose distempered minds might have been restored to health by + gentleness and skill, were driven into hopeless madness by noxious + medicines and brutality. Some few were saved as mere lunatics—they + were surrendered to general carelessness, and became simply a prey to + ridicule and aimless brutality; but vast numbers were punished as + tabernacles of Satan. + </p> + <p> + One of the least terrible of these punishments, and perhaps the most + common of all, was that of scourging demons out of the body of a lunatic. + This method commended itself even to the judgment of so thoughtful and + kindly a personage as Sir Thomas More, and as late as the sixteenth + century. But if the disease continued, as it naturally would after such + treatment, the authorities frequently felt justified in driving out the + demons by torture.(355) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (355) For prescription of the whipping-post by Sir Thomas More, see D. +H. Tuke's History of Insanity in the British Isles, London, 1882, p. 41. +</pre> + <p> + Interesting monuments of this idea, so fruitful in evil, still exist. In + the great cities of central Europe, "witch towers," where witches and + demoniacs were tortured, and "fool towers," where the more gentle lunatics + were imprisoned, may still be seen. + </p> + <p> + In the cathedrals we still see this idea fossilized. Devils and imps, + struck into stone, clamber upon towers, prowl under cornices, peer out + from bosses of foliage, perch upon capitals, nestle under benches, flame + in windows. Above the great main entrance, the most common of all + representations still shows Satan and his imps scowling, jeering, + grinning, while taking possession of the souls of men and scourging them + with serpents, or driving them with tridents, or dragging them with chains + into the flaming mouth of hell. Even in the most hidden and sacred places + of the medieval cathedral we still find representations of Satanic power + in which profanity and obscenity run riot. In these representations the + painter and the glass-stainer vied with the sculptor. Among the early + paintings on canvas a well-known example represents the devil in the shape + of a dragon, perched near the head of a dying man, eager to seize his soul + as it issues from his mouth, and only kept off by the efforts of the + attendant priest. Typical are the colossal portrait of Satan, and the + vivid picture of the devils cast out of the possessed and entering into + the swine, as shown in the cathedral-windows of Strasburg. So, too, in the + windows of Chartres Cathedral we see a saint healing a lunatic: the saint, + with a long devil-scaring formula in Latin issuing from his mouth; and the + lunatic, with a little detestable hobgoblin, horned, hoofed, and tailed, + issuing from HIS mouth. These examples are but typical of myriads in + cathedrals and abbeys and parish churches throughout Europe; and all + served to impress upon the popular mind a horror of everything called + diabolic, and a hatred of those charged with it. These sermons in stones + preceded the printed book; they were a sculptured Bible, which preceded + Luther's pictorial Bible.(356) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (356) I cite these instances out of a vast number which I have +personally noted in visits to various cathedrals. For striking examples +of mediaeval grotesques, see Wright's History of Caricature and the +Grotesque, London, 1875; Langlois's Stalles de la Cathedrale de Rouen, +1838; Adeline's Les Sculptures Grotesques et Symboliques, Rouen, +1878; Viollet le Duc, Dictionnaire de l'Architecture; Gailhabaud, Sur +l'Architecture, etc. For a reproduction of an illuminated manuscript in +which devils fly out of the mouths of the possessed under the influence +of exorcisms, see Cahier and Martin, Nouveaux Melanges d' Archeologie +for 1874, p. 136; and for a demon emerging from a victim's mouth in a +puff of smoke at the command of St. Francis Xavier, see La Devotion de +Dix Vendredis, etc., Plate xxxii. +</pre> + <p> + Satan and his imps were among the principal personages in every popular + drama, and "Hell's Mouth" was a piece of stage scenery constantly brought + into requisition. A miracle-play without a full display of the diabolic + element in it would have stood a fair chance of being pelted from the + stage.(357) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (357) See Wright, History of Caricature and the Grotesque; F. J. +Mone, Schauspiele des Mittelalters, Carlsruhe, 1846; Dr. Karl Hase, +Miracle-Plays and Sacred Dramas, Boston,1880 (translation from the +German). Examples of the miracle-plays may be found in Marriott's +Collection of English Miracle-Plays, 1838; in Hone's Ancient Mysteries; +in T. Sharpe's Dissertaion on the Pageants.. . anciently performed at +Coventry, Coventry, 1828; in the publications of the Shakespearean and +other societies. See especially The Harrowing of Hell, a miracle-play, +edited from the original now in the British Museum, by T. O. Halliwell, +London, 1840. One of the items still preserved is a sum of money paid +for keeping a fire burning in hell's mouth. Says Hase (as above, p. 42): +"In wonderful satyrlike masquerade, in which neither horns, tails, +nor hoofs were ever... wanting, the devil prosecuted on the stage his +business of fetching souls," which left the mouths of the dying "in the +form of small images." +</pre> + <p> + Not only the popular art but the popular legends embodied these ideas. The + chroniclers delighted in them; the Lives of the Saints abounded in them; + sermons enforced them from every pulpit. What wonder, then, that men and + women had vivid dreams of Satanic influence, that dread of it was like + dread of the plague, and that this terror spread the disease enormously, + until we hear of convents, villages, and even large districts, ravaged by + epidemics of diabolical possession!(358) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (358) I shall discuss these epidemics of possession, which form a +somewhat distinct class of phenomena, in the next chapter. +</pre> + <p> + And this terror naturally bred not only active cruelty toward those + supposed to be possessed, but indifference to the sufferings of those + acknowledged to be lunatics. As we have already seen, while ample and + beautiful provision was made for every other form of human suffering, for + this there was comparatively little; and, indeed, even this little was + generally worse than none. Of this indifference and cruelty we have a + striking monument in a single English word—a word originally + significant of gentleness and mercy, but which became significant of wild + riot, brutality, and confusion—Bethlehem Hospital became "Bedlam." + </p> + <p> + Modern art has also dwelt upon this theme, and perhaps the most touching + of all its exhibitions is the picture by a great French master, + representing a tender woman bound to a column and exposed to the jeers, + insults, and missiles of street ruffians.(359) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (359) The typical picture representing a priest's struggle with the +devil is in the city gallery of Rouen. The modern picture is Robert +Fleury's painting in the Luxembourg Gallery at Paris. +</pre> + <p> + Here and there, even in the worst of times, men arose who attempted to + promote a more humane view, but with little effect. One expositor of St. + Matthew, having ventured to recall the fact that some of the insane were + spoken of in the New Testament as lunatics and to suggest that their + madness might be caused by the moon, was answered that their madness was + not caused by the moon, but by the devil, who avails himself of the + moonlight for his work.(360) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (360) See Geraldus Cambrensis, cited by Tuke, as above, pp. 8, 9. +</pre> + <p> + One result of this idea was a mode of cure which especially aggravated and + spread mental disease: the promotion of great religious processions. + Troops of men and women, crying, howling, imploring saints, and beating + themselves with whips, visited various sacred shrines, images, and places + in the hope of driving off the powers of evil. The only result was an + increase in the numbers of the diseased. + </p> + <p> + For hundreds of years this idea of diabolic possession was steadily + developed. It was believed that devils entered into animals, and animals + were accordingly exorcised, tried, tortured, convicted, and executed. The + great St. Ambrose tells us that a priest, while saying mass, was troubled + by the croaking of frogs in a neighbouring marsh; that he exorcised them, + and so stopped their noise. St. Bernard, as the monkish chroniclers tell + us, mounting the pulpit to preach in his abbey, was interrupted by a cloud + of flies; straightway the saint uttered the sacred formula of + excommunication, when the flies fell dead upon the pavement in heaps, and + were cast out with shovels! A formula of exorcism attributed to a saint of + the ninth century, which remained in use down to a recent period, + especially declares insects injurious to crops to be possessed of evil + spirits, and names, among the animals to be excommunicated or exorcised, + mice, moles, and serpents. The use of exorcism against caterpillars and + grasshoppers was also common. In the thirteenth century a Bishop of + Lausanne, finding that the eels in Lake Leman troubled the fishermen, + attempted to remove the difficulty by exorcism, and two centuries later + one of his successors excommunicated all the May-bugs in the diocese. As + late as 1731 there appears an entry on the Municipal Register of Thonon as + follows: "RESOLVED, That this town join with other parishes of this + province in obtaining from Rome an excommunication against the insects, + and that it will contribute pro rata to the expenses of the same." + </p> + <p> + Did any one venture to deny that animals could be possessed by Satan, he + was at once silenced by reference to the entrance of Satan into the + serpent in the Garden of Eden, and to the casting of devils into swine by + the Founder of Christianity himself.(361) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (361) See Menabrea, Proces au Moyen Age contre les Animaux, Chambery, +1846, pp. 31 and following; also Desmazes, Supplices, Prisons et Grace +en France, pp. 89, 90, and 385-395. For a formula and ceremonies used in +excommunicating insects, see Rydberg, pp. 75 and following. +</pre> + <p> + One part of this superstition most tenaciously held was the belief that a + human being could be transformed into one of the lower animals. This + became a fundamental point. The most dreaded of predatory animals in the + Middle Ages were the wolves. Driven from the hills and forests in the + winter by hunger, they not only devoured the flocks, but sometimes came + into the villages and seized children. From time to time men and women + whose brains were disordered dreamed that they had been changed into + various animals, and especially into wolves. On their confessing this, and + often implicating others, many executions of lunatics resulted; moreover, + countless sane victims, suspected of the same impossible crime, were + forced by torture to confess it, and sent unpitied to the stake. The + belief in such a transformation pervaded all Europe, and lasted long even + in Protestant countries. Probably no article in the witch creed had more + adherents in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries than + this. Nearly every parish in Europe had its resultant horrors. + </p> + <p> + The reformed Church in all its branches fully accepted the doctrines of + witchcraft and diabolic possession, and developed them still further. No + one urged their fundamental ideas more fully than Luther. He did, indeed, + reject portions of the witchcraft folly; but to the influence of devils he + not only attributed his maladies, but his dreams, and nearly everything + that thwarted or disturbed him. The flies which lighted upon his book, the + rats which kept him awake at night, he believed to be devils; the + resistance of the Archbishop of Mayence to his ideas, he attributed to + Satan literally working in that prelate's heart; to his disciples he told + stories of men who had been killed by rashly resisting the devil. + Insanity, he was quite sure, was caused by Satan, and he exorcised + sufferers. Against some he appears to have advised stronger remedies; and + his horror of idiocy, as resulting from Satanic influence, was so great, + that on one occasion he appears to have advised the killing of an idiot + child, as being the direct offspring of Satan. Yet Luther was one of the + most tender and loving of men; in the whole range of literature there is + hardly anything more touching than his words and tributes to children. In + enforcing his ideas regarding insanity, he laid stress especially upon the + question of St. Paul as to the bewitching of the Galatians, and, regarding + idiocy, on the account in Genesis of the birth of children whose fathers + were "sons of God" and whose mothers were "daughters of men." One idea of + his was especially characteristic. The descent of Christ into hell was a + frequent topic of discussion in the Reformed Church. Melanchthon, with his + love of Greek studies, held that the purpose of the Saviour in making such + a descent was to make himself known to the great and noble men of + antiquity—Plato, Socrates, and the rest; but Luther insisted that + his purpose was to conquer Satan in a hand-to-hand struggle. + </p> + <p> + This idea of diabolic influence pervaded his conversation, his preaching, + his writings, and spread thence to the Lutheran Church in general. Calvin + also held to the same theory, and, having more power with less kindness of + heart than Luther, carried it out with yet greater harshness. Beza was + especially severe against those who believed insanity to be a natural + malady, and declared, "Such persons are refuted both by sacred and profane + history." + </p> + <p> + Under the influence, then, of such infallible teachings, in the older + Church and in the new, this superstition was developed more and more into + cruelty; and as the biblical texts, popularized in the sculptures and + windows and mural decorations of the great medieval cathedrals, had done + much to develop it among the people, so Luther's translation of the Bible, + especially in the numerous editions of it illustrated with engravings, + wrought with enormous power to spread and deepen it. In every peasant's + cottage some one could spell out the story of the devil bearing Christ + through the air and placing him upon the pinnacle of the Temple—of + the woman with seven devils—of the devils cast into the swine. Every + peasant's child could be made to understand the quaint pictures in the + family Bible or the catechism which illustrated vividly all those texts. + In the ideas thus deeply implanted, the men who in the seventeenth and + eighteenth centuries struggled against this mass of folly and cruelty + found the worst barrier to right reason.(362) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (362) For Luther, see, among the vast number of similar passages in his +works, the Table Talk, Hazlitt's translation, pp. 251, 252. As to +the grotesques in mediaeval churches, the writer of this article, in +visiting the town church of Wittenberg, noticed, just opposite the +pulpit where Luther so often preached, a very spirited figure of an +imp peering out upon the congregation. One can but suspect that this +mediaeval survival frequently suggested Luther's favourite topic during +his sermons. For Beza, see his Notes on the New Testament, Matthew iv, +24. +</pre> + <p> + Such was the treatment of demoniacs developed by theology, and such the + practice enforced by ecclesiasticism for more than a thousand years. + </p> + <p> + How an atmosphere was spread in which this belief began to dissolve away, + how its main foundations were undermined by science, and how there came in + gradually a reign of humanity, will now be related. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0063" id="link2H_4_0063"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II. BEGINNINGS OF A HEALTHFUL SCEPTICISM. + </h2> + <p> + We have now seen the culmination of the old procedure regarding insanity, + as it was developed under theology and enforced by ecclesiasticism; and we + have noted how, under the influence of Luther and Calvin, the Reformation + rather deepened than weakened the faith in the malice and power of a + personal devil. Nor was this, in the Reformed churches any more than in + the old, mere matter of theory. As in the early ages of Christianity, its + priests especially appealed, in proof of the divine mission, to their + power over the enemy of mankind in the bodies of men, so now the clergy of + the rival creeds eagerly sought opportunities to establish the truth of + their own and the falsehood of their opponents' doctrines by the visible + casting out of devils. True, their methods differed somewhat: where the + Catholic used holy water and consecrated wax, the Protestant was content + with texts of Scripture and importunate prayer; but the supplementary + physical annoyance of the indwelling demon did not greatly vary. Sharp was + the competition for the unhappy objects of treatment. Each side, of + course, stoutly denied all efficacy to its adversaries' efforts, urging + that any seeming victory over Satan was due not to the defeat but to the + collusion of the fiend. As, according to the Master himself, "no man can + by Beelzebub cast out devils," the patient was now in greater need of + relief than before; and more than one poor victim had to bear alternately + Lutheran, Roman, and perhaps Calvinistic exorcism.(363) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (363) For instances of this competition, see Freytag, Aus dem Jahrh. d. +Reformation, pp. 359-375. The Jesuit Stengel, in his De judiciis divinis +(Ingolstadt, 1651), devotes a whole chapter to an exorcism, by the great +Canisius, of a spirit that had baffled Protestant conjuration. Among +the most jubilant Catholic satires of the time are those exulting in +Luther's alleged failure as an exorcist. +</pre> + <p> + But far more serious in its consequences was another rivalry to which in + the sixteenth century the clergy of all creeds found themselves subject. + The revival of the science of medicine, under the impulse of the new study + of antiquity, suddenly bade fair to take out of the hands of the Church + the profession of which she had enjoyed so long and so profitable a + monopoly. Only one class of diseases remained unquestionably hers—those + which were still admitted to be due to the direct personal interference of + Satan—and foremost among these was insanity.(364) It was surely no + wonder that an age of religious controversy and excitement should be + exceptionally prolific in ailments of the mind; and, to men who mutually + taught the utter futility of that baptismal exorcism by which the babes of + their misguided neighbours were made to renounce the devil and his works, + it ought not to have seemed strange that his victims now became more + numerous.(365) But so simple an explanation did not satisfy these + physicians of souls; they therefore devised a simpler one: their patients, + they alleged, were bewitched, and their increase was due to the growing + numbers of those human allies of Satan known as witches. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (364) For the attitude of the Catholic clergy, the best sources are the +confidential Jesuit Litterae Annuae. To this day the numerous treatises +on "pastoral medicine" in use in the older Church devote themselves +mainly to this sort of warfare with the devil. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (365) Baptismal exorcism continued in use among the Lutherans till the +eighteenth century, though the struggle over its abandonment had been +long and sharp. See Krafft, Histories vom Exorcismo, Hamburg, 1750. +</pre> + <p> + Already, before the close of the fifteenth century, Pope Innocent VIII had + issued the startling bull by which he called on the archbishops, bishops, + and other clergy of Germany to join hands with his inquisitors in rooting + out these willing bond-servants of Satan, who were said to swarm + throughout all that country and to revel in the blackest crimes. Other + popes had since reiterated the appeal; and, though none of these documents + touched on the blame of witchcraft for diabolic possession, the + inquisitors charged with their execution pointed it out most clearly in + their fearful handbook, the Witch-Hammer, and prescribed the special means + by which possession thus caused should be met. These teachings took firm + root in religious minds everywhere; and during the great age of + witch-burning that followed the Reformation it may well be doubted whether + any single cause so often gave rise to an outbreak of the persecution as + the alleged bewitchment of some poor mad or foolish or hysterical + creature. The persecution, thus once under way, fed itself; for, under the + terrible doctrine of "excepted cases," by which in the religious crimes of + heresy and witchcraft there was no limit to the use of torture, the witch + was forced to confess to accomplices, who in turn accused others, and so + on to the end of the chapter.(366) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (366) The Jesuit Stengel, professor at Ingolstadt, who (in his great +work, De judiciis divinis) urges, as reasons why a merciful God permits +illness, his wish to glorify himself through the miracles wrought by his +Church, and his desire to test the faith of men by letting them choose +between the holy aid of the Church and the illicit resort to medicine, +declares that there is a difference between simple possession and +that brought by bewitchment, and insists that the latter is the more +difficult to treat. +</pre> + <p> + The horrors of such a persecution, with the consciousness of an + ever-present devil it breathed and the panic terror of him it inspired, + could not but aggravate the insanity it claimed to cure. + Well-authenticated, though rarer than is often believed, were the cases + where crazed women voluntarily accused themselves of this impossible + crime. One of the most eminent authorities on diseases of the mind + declares that among the unfortunate beings who were put to death for + witchcraft he recognises well-marked victims of cerebral disorders; while + an equally eminent authority in Germany tells us that, in a most careful + study of the original records of their trials by torture, he has often + found their answers and recorded conversations exactly like those familiar + to him in our modern lunatic asylums, and names some forms of insanity + which constantly and un mistakably appear among those who suffered for + criminal dealings with the devil.(367) The result of this widespread + terror was naturally, therefore, a steady increase in mental disorders. A + great modern authority tells us that, although modern civilization tends + to increase insanity, the number of lunatics at present is far less than + in the ages of faith and in the Reformation period. The treatment of the + "possessed," as we find it laid down in standard treatises, sanctioned by + orthodox churchmen and jurists, accounts for this abundantly. One sort of + treatment used for those accused of witchcraft will also serve to show + this—the "tortura insomniae." Of all things in brain-disease, calm + and regular sleep is most certainly beneficial; yet, under this practice, + these half-crazed creatures were prevented, night after night and day + after day, from sleeping or even resting. In this way temporary delusion + became chronic insanity, mild cases became violent, torture and death + ensued, and the "ways of God to man" were justified.(368) But the most + contemptible creatures in all those centuries were the physicians who took + sides with religious orthodoxy. While we have, on the side of truth, Flade + sacrificing his life, Cornelius Agrippa his liberty, Wier and Loos their + hopes of preferment, Bekker his position, and Thomasius his ease, + reputation, and friends, we find, as allies of the other side, a troop of + eminently respectable doctors mixing Scripture, metaphysics, and pretended + observations to support the "safe side" and to deprecate interference with + the existing superstition, which seemed to them "a very safe belief to be + held by the common people."(369) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (367) See D. H. Tuke, Chapters in the History of the Insane in the +British Isles, London, 1822, p. 36; also Kirchhoff, p. 340. The forms +of insanity especially mentioned are "dementia senilis" and epilepsy. A +striking case of voluntary confession of witchcraft by a woman who lived +to recover from the delusion is narrated in great detail by Reginald +Scot, in his Discovery of Witchcraft, London, 1584. It is, alas, only +too likely that the "strangeness" caused by slight and unrecognised +mania led often to the accusation of witchcraft instead of to the +suspicion of possession. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (368) See Kirchhoff, as above. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (369) For the arguments used by creatures of this sort, see Diefenbach, +Der Hexenwahn vor und nach der Glaubensspaltung in Deutschland, pp. +342-346. A long list of their infamous names is given on p. 345. +</pre> + <p> + Against one form of insanity both Catholics and Protestants were + especially cruel. Nothing is more common in all times of religious + excitement than strange personal hallucinations, involving the belief, by + the insane patient, that he is a divine person. In the most striking + representation of insanity that has ever been made, Kaulbach shows, at the + centre of his wonderful group, a patient drawing attention to himself as + the Saviour of the world. + </p> + <p> + Sometimes, when this form of disease took a milder hysterical character, + the subject of it was treated with reverence, and even elevated to + sainthood: such examples as St. Francis of Assisi and St. Catherine of + Siena in Italy, St. Bridget in Sweden, St. Theresa in Spain, St. Mary + Alacoque in France, and Louise Lateau in Belgium, are typical. But more + frequently such cases shocked public feeling, and were treated with + especial rigour: typical of this is the case of Simon Marin, who in his + insanity believed himself to be the Son of God, and was on that account + burned alive at Paris and his ashes scattered to the winds.(370) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (370) As to the frequency among the insane of this form of belief, see +Calmeil, vol. ii, p. 257; also Maudsley, Pathology of Mind, pp. 201, +202, and 418-424; also Rambaud, Histoire de la Civilisation en France, +vol. ii, p. 110. For the peculiar abberations of the saints above named +and other ecstatics, see Maudsley, as above, pp. 71, 72, and 149, 150. +Maudsley's chapters on this and cognate subjects are certainly among the +most valuable contributions to modern thought. For a discussion of the +most recent case, see Warlomont, Louise Lateau, Paris, 1875. +</pre> + <p> + The profundity of theologians and jurists constantly developed new + theories as to the modes of diabolic entrance into the "possessed." One + such theory was that Satan could be taken into the mouth with one's food—perhaps + in the form of an insect swallowed on a leaf of salad, and this was + sanctioned, as we have seen, by no less infallible an authority than + Gregory the Great, Pope and Saint—Another theory was that Satan + entered the body when the mouth was opened to breathe, and there are + well-authenticated cases of doctors and divines who, when casting out evil + spirits, took especial care lest the imp might jump into their own mouths + from the mouth of the patient. Another theory was that the devil entered + human beings during sleep; and at a comparatively recent period a King of + Spain was wont to sleep between two monks, to keep off the devil.(371) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (371) As to the devil's entering into the mouth while eating, see +Calmeil, as above, vol. ii, pp. 105, 106. As to the dread of Dr. Borde +lest the evil spirit, when exorcised, might enter his own body, see +Tuke, as above, p. 28. As to the King of Spain, see the noted chapter in +Buckle's History of Civilization in England. +</pre> + <p> + The monasteries were frequent sources of that form of mental disease which + was supposed to be caused by bewitchment. From the earliest period it is + evident that monastic life tended to develop insanity. Such cases as that + of St. Anthony are typical of its effects upon the strongest minds; but it + was especially the convents for women that became the great breeding-beds + of this disease. Among the large numbers of women and girls thus assembled—many + of them forced into monastic seclusion against their will, for the reason + that their families could give them no dower—subjected to the + unsatisfied longings, suspicions, bickerings, petty jealousies, envies, + and hatreds, so inevitable in convent life—mental disease was not + unlikely to be developed at any moment. Hysterical excitement in nunneries + took shapes sometimes comical, but more generally tragical. Noteworthy is + it that the last places where executions for witchcraft took place were + mainly in the neighbourhood of great nunneries; and the last famous + victim, of the myriads executed in Germany for this imaginary crime, was + Sister Anna Renata Singer, sub-prioress of a nunnery near Wurzburg.(372) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (372) Among the multitude of authorities on this point, see Kirchhoff, +as above, p. 337; and for a most striking picture of this dark side of +convent life, drawn, indeed, by a devoted Roman Catholic, see Manzoni's +Promessi Sposi. On Anna Renata there is a striking essay by the late +Johannes Scherr, in his Hammerschlage und Historien. On the general +subject of hysteria thus developed, see the writings of Carpenter and +Tuke; and as to its natural development in nunneries, see Maudsley, +Responsibility in Mental Disease, p. 9. Especial attention will be paid +to this in the chapter on Diabolism and Hysteria. +</pre> + <p> + The same thing was seen among young women exposed to sundry fanatical + Protestant preachers. Insanity, both temporary and permanent, was thus + frequently developed among the Huguenots of France, and has been thus + produced in America, from the days of the Salem persecution down to the + "camp meetings" of the present time.(373) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (373) This branch of the subject will be discussed more at length in a +future chapter. +</pre> + <p> + At various times, from the days of St. Agobard of Lyons in the ninth + century to Pomponatius in the sixteenth, protests or suggestions, more or + less timid, had been made by thoughtful men against this system. Medicine + had made some advance toward a better view, but the theological torrent + had generally overwhelmed all who supported a scientific treatment. At + last, toward the end of the sixteenth century, two men made a beginning of + a much more serious attack upon this venerable superstition. The revival + of learning, and the impulse to thought on material matters given during + the "age of discovery," undoubtedly produced an atmosphere which made the + work of these men possible. In the year 1563, in the midst of + demonstrations of demoniacal possession by the most eminent theologians + and judges, who sat in their robes and looked wise, while women, + shrieking, praying, and blaspheming, were put to the torture, a man arose + who dared to protest effectively that some of the persons thus charged + might be simply insane; and this man was John Wier, of Cleves. + </p> + <p> + His protest does not at this day strike us as particularly bold. In his + books, De Praestigiis Daemonum and De Lamiis, he did his best not to + offend religious or theological susceptibilities; but he felt obliged to + call attention to the mingled fraud and delusion of those who claimed to + be bewitched, and to point out that it was often not their accusers, but + the alleged witches themselves, who were really ailing, and to urge that + these be brought first of all to a physician. + </p> + <p> + His book was at once attacked by the most eminent theologians. One of the + greatest laymen of his time, Jean Bodin, also wrote with especial power + against it, and by a plentiful use of scriptural texts gained to all + appearance a complete victory: this superstition seemed thus fastened upon + Europe for a thousand years more. But doubt was in the air, and, about a + quarter of a century after the publication of Wier's book there were + published in France the essays of a man by no means so noble, but of far + greater genius—Michel de Montaigne. The general scepticism which his + work promoted among the French people did much to produce an atmosphere in + which the belief in witchcraft and demoniacal possession must inevitably + wither. But this process, though real, was hidden, and the victory still + seemed on the theological side. + </p> + <p> + The development of the new truth and its struggle against the old error + still went on. In Holland, Balthazar Bekker wrote his book against the + worst forms of the superstition, and attempted to help the scientific side + by a text from the Second Epistle of St. Peter, showing that the devils + had been confined by the Almighty, and therefore could not be doing on + earth the work which was imputed to them. But Bekker's Protestant brethren + drove him from his pulpit, and he narrowly escaped with his life. + </p> + <p> + The last struggles of a great superstition are very frequently the worst. + So it proved in this case. In the first half of the seventeenth century + the cruelties arising from the old doctrine were more numerous and severe + than ever before. In Spain, Sweden, Italy, and, above all, in Germany, we + see constant efforts to suppress the evolution of the new truth. + </p> + <p> + But in the midst of all this reactionary rage glimpses of right reason + began to appear. It is significant that at this very time, when the old + superstition was apparently everywhere triumphant, the declaration by + Poulet that he and his brother and his cousin had, by smearing themselves + with ointment, changed themselves into wolves and devoured children, + brought no severe punishment upon them. The judges sent him to a + mad-house. More and more, in spite of frantic efforts from the pulpit to + save the superstition, great writers and jurists, especially in France, + began to have glimpses of the truth and courage to uphold it. Malebranche + spoke against the delusion; Seguier led the French courts to annul several + decrees condemning sorcerers; the great chancellor, D'Aguesseau, declared + to the Parliament of Paris that, if they wished to stop sorcery, they must + stop talking about it—that sorcerers are more to be pitied than + blamed.(374) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (374) See Esquirol, Des Maladies mentales, vol. i, pp. 488, 489; vol. +ii, p. 529. +</pre> + <p> + But just at this time, as the eighteenth century was approaching, the + theological current was strengthened by a great ecclesiastic—the + greatest theologian that France has produced, whose influence upon + religion and upon the mind of Louis XIV was enormous—Bossuet, Bishop + of Meaux. There had been reason to expect that Bossuet would at least do + something to mitigate the superstition; for his writings show that, in + much which before his day had been ascribed to diabolic possession, he saw + simple lunacy. Unfortunately, the same adherence to the literal + interpretation of Scripture which led him to oppose every other scientific + truth developed in his time, led him also to attack this: he delivered and + published two great sermons, which, while showing some progress in the + form of his belief, showed none the less that the fundamental idea of + diabolic possession was still to be tenaciously held. What this idea was + may be seen in one typical statement: he declared that "a single devil + could turn the earth round as easily as we turn a marble."(375) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (375) See the two sermons, Sur les Demons (which are virtually but two +versions of the same sermon), in Bousset's works, edition of 1845, +vol. iii, p. 236 et seq.; also Dziewicki, in The Nineteenth Century, as +above. On Bousset's resistance to other scientific truths, especially +in astronomy, geology, and political economy, see other chapters in this +work. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0064" id="link2H_4_0064"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III. THE FINAL STRUGGLE AND VICTORY OF SCIENCE.—PINEL AND TUKE. + </h2> + <p> + The theological current, thus re-enforced, seemed to become again + irresistible; but it was only so in appearance. In spite of it, French + scepticism continued to develop; signs of quiet change among the mass of + thinking men were appearing more and more; and in 1672 came one of great + significance, for, the Parliament of Rouen having doomed fourteen + sorcerers to be burned, their execution was delayed for two years, + evidently on account of scepticism among officials; and at length the + great minister of Louis XIV, Colbert, issued an edict checking such + trials, and ordering the convicted to be treated for madness. + </p> + <p> + Victory seemed now to incline to the standard of science, and in 1725 no + less a personage than St. Andre, a court physician, dared to publish a + work virtually showing "demoniacal possession" to be lunacy. + </p> + <p> + The French philosophy, from the time of its early development in the + eighteenth century under Montesquieu and Voltaire, naturally strengthened + the movement; the results of post-mortem examinations of the brains of the + "possessed" confirmed it; and in 1768 we see it take form in a declaration + by the Parliament of Paris, that possessed persons were to be considered + as simply diseased. Still, the old belief lingered on, its life flickering + up from time to time in those parts of France most under ecclesiastical + control, until in these last years of the nineteenth century a blow has + been given it by the researches of Charcot and his compeers which will + probably soon extinguish it. One evidence of Satanic intercourse with + mankind especially, on which for many generations theologians had laid + peculiar stress, and for which they had condemned scores of little girls + and hundreds of old women to a most cruel death, was found to be nothing + more than one of the many results of hysteria.(376) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (376) For Colbert's influence, see Dagron, p. 8; also Rambaud, as above, +vol. ii, p. 155. For St. Andre, see Lacroix, as above, pp. 189, 190. +For Charcot's researches into the disease now known as Meteorismus +hystericus, but which was formerly regarded in the ecclesiastical courts +as an evidence of pregnancy through relations with Satan, see Snell, +Hexenprocesse un Geistesstorung, Munchen, 1891, chaps. xii and xiii. +</pre> + <p> + In England the same warfare went on. John Locke had asserted the truth, + but the theological view continued to control public opinion. Most + prominent among those who exercised great power in its behalf was John + Wesley, and the strength and beauty of his character made his influence in + this respect all the more unfortunate. The same servitude to the mere + letter of Scripture which led him to declare that "to give up witchcraft + is to give up the Bible," controlled him in regard to insanity. He + insisted, on the authority of the Old Testament, that bodily diseases are + sometimes caused by devils, and, upon the authority of the New Testament, + that the gods of the heathen are demons; he believed that dreams, while in + some cases caused by bodily conditions and passions, are shown by + Scripture to be also caused by occult powers of evil; he cites a physician + to prove that "most lunatics are really demoniacs." In his great sermon on + Evil Angels, he dwells upon this point especially; resists the idea that + "possession" may be epilepsy, even though ordinary symptoms of epilepsy be + present; protests against "giving up to infidels such proofs of an + invisible world as are to be found in diabolic possession"; and evidently + believes that some who have been made hysterical by his own preaching are + "possessed of Satan." On all this, and much more to the same effect, he + insisted with all the power given to him by his deep religious nature, his + wonderful familiarity with the Scriptures, his natural acumen, and his + eloquence. + </p> + <p> + But here, too, science continued its work. The old belief was steadily + undermined, an atmosphere favourable to the truth was more and more + developed, and the act of Parliament, in 1735, which banished the crime of + witchcraft from the statute book, was the beginning of the end. + </p> + <p> + In Germany we see the beginnings of a similar triumph for science. In + Prussia, that sturdy old monarch, Frederick William I, nullified the + efforts of the more zealous clergy and orthodox jurists to keep up the old + doctrine in his dominions; throughout Protestant Germany, where it had + raged most severely, it was, as a rule, cast out of the Church formulas, + catechisms, and hymns, and became more and more a subject for jocose + allusion. From force of habit, and for the sake of consistency, some of + the more conservative theologians continued to repeat the old arguments, + and there were many who insisted upon the belief as absolutely necessary + to ordinary orthodoxy; but it is evident that it had become a mere + conventionality, that men only believed that they believed it, and now a + reform seemed possible in the treatment of the insane.(377) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (377) For John Locke, see King's Life of Locke, pp. 326, 327. For +Wesley, out of his almost innumerable writings bearing on the subject, +I may select the sermon on Evil Angels, and his Letter to Dr. Middleton; +and in his collected works, there are many striking statements and +arguments, especially in vols. iii, vi, and ix. See also Tyerman's Life +of Wesley, vol. ii, pp. 260 et seq. Luther's great hymn, Ein' feste +Burg, remained, of course, a prominent exception to the rule; but a +popular proverb came to express the general feeling: "Auf Teufel reimt +sich Zweifel." See Langin, as above, pp. 545, 546. +</pre> + <p> + In Austria, the government set Dr. Antonio Haen at making careful + researches into the causes of diabolic possession. He did not think it + best, in view of the power of the Church, to dispute the possibility or + probability of such cases, but simply decided, after thorough + investigation, that out of the many cases which had been brought to him, + not one supported the belief in demoniacal influence. An attempt was made + to follow up this examination, and much was done by men like Francke and + Van Swieten, and especially by the reforming emperor, Joseph II, to rescue + men and women who would otherwise have fallen victims to the prevalent + superstition. Unfortunately, Joseph had arrayed against himself the whole + power of the Church, and most of his good efforts seemed brought to + naught. But what the noblest of the old race of German emperors could not + do suddenly, the German men of science did gradually. Quietly and + thoroughly, by proofs that could not be gainsaid, they recovered the old + scientific fact established in pagan Greece and Rome, that madness is + simply physical disease. But they now established it on a basis that can + never again be shaken; for, in post-mortem examinations of large numbers + of "possessed" persons, they found evidence of brain-disease. Typical is a + case at Hamburg in 1729. An afflicted woman showed in a high degree all + the recognised characteristics of diabolic possession: exorcisms, + preachings, and sanctified remedies of every sort were tried in vain; + milder medical means were then tried, and she so far recovered that she + was allowed to take the communion before she died: the autopsy, held in + the presence of fifteen physicians and a public notary, showed it to be + simply a case of chronic meningitis. The work of German men of science in + this field is noble indeed; a great succession, from Wier to Virchow, have + erected a barrier against which all the efforts of reactionists beat in + vain.(378) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (378) See Kirchhoff, pp. 181-187; also Langin, Religion und +Hexenprozess, as above cited. +</pre> + <p> + In America, the belief in diabolic influence had, in the early colonial + period, full control. The Mathers, so superior to their time in many + things, were children of their time in this: they supported the belief + fully, and the Salem witchcraft horrors were among its results; but the + discussion of that folly by Calef struck it a severe blow, and a better + influence spread rapidly throughout the colonies. + </p> + <p> + By the middle of the eighteenth century belief in diabolic possession had + practically disappeared from all enlightened countries, and during the + nineteenth century it has lost its hold even in regions where the medieval + spirit continues strongest. Throughout the Middle Ages, as we have seen, + Satan was a leading personage in the miracle-plays, but in 1810 the + Bavarian Government refused to allow the Passion Play at Ober-Ammergau if + Satan was permitted to take any part in it; in spite of heroic efforts to + maintain the old belief, even the childlike faith of the Tyrolese had + arrived at a point which made a representation of Satan simply a thing to + provoke laughter. + </p> + <p> + Very significant also was the trial which took place at Wemding, in + southern Germany, in 1892. A boy had become hysterical, and the Capuchin + Father Aurelian tried to exorcise him, and charged a peasant's wife, Frau + Herz, with bewitching him, on evidence that would have cost the woman her + life at any time during the seventeenth century. Thereupon the woman's + husband brought suit against Father Aurelian for slander. The latter urged + in his defence that the boy was possessed of an evil spirit, if anybody + ever was; that what had been said and done was in accordance with the + rules and regulations of the Church, as laid down in decrees, formulas, + and rituals sanctioned by popes, councils, and innumerable bishops during + ages. All in vain. The court condemned the good father to fine and + imprisonment. As in a famous English case, "hell was dismissed, with + costs." Even more significant is the fact that recently a boy declared by + two Bavarian priests to be possessed by the devil, was taken, after all + Church exorcisms had failed, to Father Kneipp's hydropathic establishment + and was there speedily cured.(379) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (379) For remarkably interesting articles showing the recent efforts +of sundry priests in Italy and South Germany to revive the belief +in diabolic possession—efforts in which the Bishop of Augsburg took +part—see Prof. E. P. Evans, on Modern Instances of Diabolic Possession, +and on Recent Recrudescence of Superstition in The Popular Science +Monthly for Dec. 1892, and for Oct., Nov., 1895. +</pre> + <p> + Speaking of the part played by Satan at Ober-Ammergau, Hase says: + "Formerly, seated on his infernal throne, surrounded by his hosts with Sin + and Death, he opened the play,... and... retained throughout a + considerable part; but he has been surrendered to the progress of that + enlightenment which even the Bavarian highlands have not been able to + escape" (p. 80). + </p> + <p> + The especial point to be noted is, that from the miracle-play of the + present day Satan and his works have disappeared. The present writer was + unable to detect, in a representation of the Passion Play at + Ober-Ammergau, in 1881, the slightest reference to diabolic interference + with the course of events as represented from the Old Testament, or from + the New, in a series of tableaux lasting, with a slight intermission, from + nine in the morning to after four in the afternoon. With the most thorough + exhibition of minute events in the life of Christ, and at times with + hundreds of figures on the stage, there was not a person or a word which + recalled that main feature in the mediaeval Church plays. The present + writer also made a full collection of the photographs of tableaux, of + engravings of music, and of works bearing upon these representations for + twenty years before, and in none of these was there an apparent survival + of the old belief. + </p> + <p> + But, although the old superstition had been discarded, the inevitable + conservatism in theology and medicine caused many old abuses to be + continued for years after the theological basis for them had really + disappeared. There still lingered also a feeling of dislike toward madmen, + engendered by the early feeling of hostility toward them, which sufficed + to prevent for many years any practical reforms. + </p> + <p> + What that old theory had been, even under the most favourable + circumstances and among the best of men, we have seen in the fact that Sir + Thomas More ordered acknowledged lunatics to be publicly flogged; and it + will be remembered that Shakespeare makes one of his characters refer to + madmen as deserving "a dark house and a whip." What the old practice was + and continued to be we know but too well. Taking Protestant England as an + example—and it was probably the most humane—we have a chain of + testimony. Toward the end of the sixteenth century, Bethlehem Hospital was + reported too loathsome for any man to enter; in the seventeenth century, + John Evelyn found it no better; in the eighteenth, Hogarth's pictures and + contemporary reports show it to be essentially what it had been in those + previous centuries.(380) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (380) On Sir Thomas More and the condition of Bedlam, see Tuke, History +of the Insane in the British Isles, pp. 63-73. One of the passages of +Shakespeare is in As You Like It, Act iii, scene 2. As to the survival +of indifference to the sufferings of the insane so long after the belief +which caused it had generally disappeared, see some excellent remarks in +Maudsley's Responsibility in Mental Disease, London, 1885, pp. 10-12. +</pre> + <p> + The older English practice is thus quaintly described by Richard Carew (in + his Survey of Cornwall, London, 1602, 1769): "In our forefathers' daies, + when devotion as much exceeded knowledge, as knowledge now commeth short + of devotion, there were many bowssening places, for curing of mad men, and + amongst the rest, one at Alternunne in this Hundred, called S. + Nunnespoole, which Saints Altar (it may be)... gave name to the church... + The watter running from S. Nunnes well, fell into a square and close + walled plot, which might bee filled at what depth they listed. Vpon this + wall was the franticke person set to stand, his backe towards the poole, + and from thence with a sudden blow in the brest, tumbled headlong into the + pond; where a strong fellowe, provided for the nonce, tooke him, and + tossed him vp and downe, alongst and athwart the water, vntill the + patient, by forgoing strength, had somewhat forgot his fury. Then there + was hee conveyed to the Church, and certain Masses sung over him; vpon + which handling, if his right wits returned, S. Nunne had the thanks; but + if there appeared any small amendment, he was bowsened againe, and againe, + while there remayned in him any hope of life, for recovery." + </p> + <p> + The first humane impulse of any considerable importance in this field + seems to have been aroused in America. In the year 1751 certain members of + the Society of Friends founded a small hospital for the insane, on better + principles, in Pennsylvania. To use the language of its founders, it was + intended "as a good work, acceptable to God." Twenty years later Virginia + established a similar asylum, and gradually others appeared in other + colonies. + </p> + <p> + But it was in France that mercy was to be put upon a scientific basis, and + was to lead to practical results which were to convert the world to + humanity. In this case, as in so many others, from France was spread and + popularized not only the scepticism which destroyed the theological + theory, but also the devotion which built up the new scientific theory and + endowed the world with a new treasure of civilization. + </p> + <p> + In 1756 some physicians of the great hospital at Paris known as the + Hotel-Dieu protested that the cruelties prevailing in the treatment of the + insane were aggravating the disease; and some protests followed from other + quarters. Little effect was produced at first; but just before the French + Revolution, Tenon, La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, and others took up the + subject, and in 1791 a commission was appointed to undertake a reform. + </p> + <p> + By great good fortune, the man selected to lead in the movement was one + who had already thrown his heart into it—Jean Baptiste Pinel. In + 1792 Pinel was made physician at Bicetre, one of the most extensive + lunatic asylums in France, and to the work there imposed upon him he gave + all his powers. Little was heard of him at first. The most terrible scenes + of the French Revolution were drawing nigh; but he laboured on, modestly + and devotedly—apparently without a thought of the great political + storm raging about him. + </p> + <p> + His first step was to discard utterly the whole theological doctrine of + "possession," and especially the idea that insanity is the result of any + subtle spiritual influence. He simply put in practice the theory that + lunacy is the result of bodily disease. + </p> + <p> + It is a curious matter for reflection, that but for this sway of the + destructive philosophy of the eighteenth century, and of the Terrorists + during the French Revolution, Pinel's blessed work would in all + probability have been thwarted, and he himself excommunicated for heresy + and driven from his position. Doubtless the same efforts would have been + put forth against him which the Church, a little earlier, had put forth + against inoculation as a remedy for smallpox; but just at that time the + great churchmen had other things to think of besides crushing this + particular heretic: they were too much occupied in keeping their own heads + from the guillotine to give attention to what was passing in the head of + Pinel. He was allowed to work in peace, and in a short time the reign of + diabolism at Bicetre was ended. What the exorcisms and fetiches and + prayers and processions, and drinking of holy water, and ringing of bells, + had been unable to accomplish during eighteen hundred years, he achieved + in a few months. His method was simple: for the brutality and cruelty + which had prevailed up to that time, he substituted kindness and + gentleness. The possessed were taken out of their dungeons, given sunny + rooms, and allowed the liberty of pleasant ground for exercise; chains + were thrown aside. At the same time, the mental power of each patient was + developed by its fitting exercise, and disease was met with remedies + sanctioned by experiment, observation, and reason. Thus was gained one of + the greatest, though one of the least known, triumphs of modern science + and humanity. + </p> + <p> + The results obtained by Pinel had an instant effect, not only in France + but throughout Europe: the news spread from hospital to hospital. At his + death, Esquirol took up his work; and, in the place of the old training of + judges, torturers, and executioners by theology to carry out its ideas in + cruelty, there was now trained a school of physicians to develop science + in this field and carry out its decrees in mercy.(381) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (381) For the services of Tenon and his associates, and also for the +work of Pinel, see especially Esquirol, Des Maladies mentales, Paris, +1838, vol. i, p. 35; and for the general subject, and the condition of +the hospitals at this period, see Dagron, as above. +</pre> + <p> + A similar evolution of better science and practice took place in England. + In spite of the coldness, and even hostility, of the greater men in the + Established Church, and notwithstanding the scriptural demonstrations of + Wesley that the majority of the insane were possessed of devils, the + scientific method steadily gathered strength. In 1750 the condition of the + insane began to attract especial attention; it was found that mad-houses + were swayed by ideas utterly indefensible, and that the practices + engendered by these ideas were monstrous. As a rule, the patients were + immured in cells, and in many cases were chained to the walls; in others, + flogging and starvation played leading parts, and in some cases the + patients were killed. Naturally enough, John Howard declared, in 1789, + that he found in Constantinople a better insane asylum than the great St. + Luke's Hospital in London. Well might he do so; for, ever since Caliph + Omar had protected and encouraged the scientific investigation of insanity + by Paul of Aegina, the Moslem treatment of the insane had been far more + merciful than the system prevailing throughout Christendom.(382) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (382) See D. H. Tuke, as above, p. 110; also Trelat, as already cited. +</pre> + <p> + In 1792—the same year in which Pinel began his great work in France—William + Tuke began a similar work in England. There seems to have been no + connection between these two reformers; each wrought independently of the + other, but the results arrived at were the same. So, too, in the main, + were their methods; and in the little house of William Tuke, at York, + began a better era for England. + </p> + <p> + The name which this little asylum received is a monument both of the old + reign of cruelty and of the new reign of humanity. Every old name for such + an asylum had been made odious and repulsive by ages of misery; in a happy + moment of inspiration Tuke's gentle Quaker wife suggested a new name; and, + in accordance with this suggestion, the place became known as a "Retreat." + </p> + <p> + From the great body of influential classes in church and state Tuke + received little aid. The influence of the theological spirit was shown + when, in that same year, Dr. Pangster published his Observations on Mental + Disorders, and, after displaying much ignorance as to the causes and + nature of insanity, summed up by saying piously, "Here our researches must + stop, and we must declare that 'wonderful are the works of the Lord, and + his ways past finding out.'" Such seemed to be the view of the Church at + large: though the new "Retreat" was at one of the two great ecclesiastical + centres of England, we hear of no aid or encouragement from the Archbishop + of York or from his clergy. Nor was this the worst: the indirect influence + of the theological habit of thought and ecclesiastical prestige was + displayed in the Edinburgh Review. That great organ of opinion, not + content with attacking Tuke, poured contempt upon his work, as well as on + that of Pinel. A few of Tuke's brother and sister Quakers seem to have + been his only reliance; and in a letter regarding his efforts at that time + he says, "All men seem to desert me."(383) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (383) See D. H. Tuke, as above, p. 116-142, and 512; also the Edinburgh +Review for April, 1803. +</pre> + <p> + In this atmosphere of English conservative opposition or indifference the + work could not grow rapidly. As late as 1815, a member of Parliament + stigmatized the insane asylums of England as the shame of the nation; and + even as late as 1827, and in a few cases as late as 1850, there were + revivals of the old absurdity and brutality. Down to a late period, in the + hospitals of St. Luke and Bedlam, long rows of the insane were chained to + the walls of the corridors. But Gardner at Lincoln, Donnelly at Hanwell, + and a new school of practitioners in mental disease, took up the work of + Tuke, and the victory in England was gained in practice as it had been + previously gained in theory. + </p> + <p> + There need be no controversy regarding the comparative merits of these two + benefactors of our race, Pinel and Tuke. They clearly did their thinking + and their work independently of each other, and thereby each strengthened + the other and benefited mankind. All that remains to be said is, that + while France has paid high honours to Pinel, as to one who did much to + free the world from one of its most cruel superstitions and to bring in a + reign of humanity over a wide empire, England has as yet made no fitting + commemoration of her great benefactor in this field. York Minster holds + many tombs of men, of whom some were blessings to their fellow-beings, + while some were but "solemnly constituted impostors" and parasites upon + the body politic; yet, to this hour, that great temple has received no + consecration by a monument to the man who did more to alleviate human + misery than any other who has ever entered it. + </p> + <p> + But the place of these two men in history is secure. They stand with + Grotius, Thomasius, and Beccaria—the men who in modern times have + done most to prevent unmerited sorrow. They were not, indeed, called to + suffer like their great compeers; they were not obliged to see their + writings—among the most blessed gifts of God to man—condemned, + as were those of Grotius and Beccaria by the Catholic Church, and those of + Thomasius by a large section of the Protestant Church; they were not + obliged to flee for their lives, as were Grotius and Thomasius; but their + effort is none the less worthy. The French Revolution, indeed, saved + Pinel, and the decay of English ecclesiasticism gave Tuke his opportunity; + but their triumphs are none the less among the glories of our race; for + they were the first acknowledged victors in a struggle of science for + humanity which had lasted nearly two thousand years. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVI. FROM DIABOLISM TO HYSTERIA. + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0066" id="link2H_4_0066"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I. THE EPIDEMICS OF "POSSESSION." + </h2> + <p> + In the foregoing chapter I have sketched the triumph of science in + destroying the idea that individual lunatics are "possessed by devils," in + establishing the truth that insanity is physical disease, and in + substituting for superstitious cruelties toward the insane a treatment + mild, kindly, and based upon ascertained facts. + </p> + <p> + The Satan who had so long troubled individual men and women thus became + extinct; henceforth his fossil remains only were preserved: they may still + be found in the sculptures and storied windows of medieval churches, in + sundry liturgies, and in popular forms of speech. + </p> + <p> + But another Satan still lived—a Satan who wrought on a larger scale—who + took possession of multitudes. For, after this triumph of the scientific + method, there still remained a class of mental disorders which could not + be treated in asylums, which were not yet fully explained by science, and + which therefore gave arguments of much apparent strength to the supporters + of the old theological view: these were the epidemics of "diabolic + possession" which for so many centuries afflicted various parts of the + world. + </p> + <p> + When obliged, then, to retreat from their old position in regard to + individual cases of insanity, the more conservative theologians promptly + referred to these epidemics as beyond the domain of science—as clear + evidences of the power of Satan; and, as the basis of this view, they + cited from the Old Testament frequent references to witchcraft, and, from + the New Testament, St. Paul's question as to the possible bewitching of + the Galatians, and the bewitching of the people of Samaria by Simon the + Magician. + </p> + <p> + Naturally, such leaders had very many adherents in that class, so large in + all times, who find that + </p> + <p> + "To follow foolish precedents and wink With both our eyes, is easier than + to think."(384) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (384) As to eminent physicians' finding a stumbling-block in hysterical +mania, see Kirchhoff's article, p. 351, cited in previous chapter. +</pre> + <p> + It must be owned that their case seemed strong. Though in all human + history, so far as it is closely known, these phenomena had appeared, and + though every classical scholar could recall the wild orgies of the + priests, priestesses, and devotees of Dionysus and Cybele, and the + epidemic of wild rage which took its name from some of these, the great + fathers and doctors of the Church had left a complete answer to any + scepticism based on these facts; they simply pointed to St. Paul's + declaration that the gods of the heathen were devils: these examples, + then, could be transformed into a powerful argument for diabolic + possession.(385) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (385) As to the Maenads, Corybantes, and the disease "Corybantism," +see, for accessible and adequate statements, Smith's Dictionary of +Antiquities and Lewis and Short's Lexicon; also reference in Hecker's +Essays upon the Black Death and the Dancing Mania. For more complete +discussion, see Semelaigne, L'Alienation mentale dans l'Antiquite, +Paris, 1869. +</pre> + <p> + But it was more especially the epidemics of diabolism in medieval and + modern times which gave strength to the theological view, and from these I + shall present a chain of typical examples. + </p> + <p> + As early as the eleventh century we find clear accounts of diabolical + possession taking the form of epidemics of raving, jumping, dancing, and + convulsions, the greater number of the sufferers being women and children. + In a time so rude, accounts of these manifestations would rarely receive + permanent record; but it is very significant that even at the beginning of + the eleventh century we hear of them at the extremes of Europe—in + northern Germany and in southern Italy. At various times during that + century we get additional glimpses of these exhibitions, but it is not + until the beginning of the thirteenth century that we have a renewal of + them on a large scale. In 1237, at Erfurt, a jumping disease and dancing + mania afflicted a hundred children, many of whom died in consequence; it + spread through the whole region, and fifty years later we hear of it in + Holland. + </p> + <p> + But it was the last quarter of the fourteenth century that saw its + greatest manifestations. There was abundant cause for them. It was a time + of oppression, famine, and pestilence: the crusading spirit, having run + its course, had been succeeded by a wild, mystical fanaticism; the most + frightful plague in human history—the Black Death—was + depopulating whole regions—reducing cities to villages, and filling + Europe with that strange mixture of devotion and dissipation which we + always note during the prevalence of deadly epidemics on a large scale. + </p> + <p> + It was in this ferment of religious, moral, and social disease that there + broke out in 1374, in the lower Rhine region, the greatest, perhaps, of + all manifestations of "possession"—an epidemic of dancing, jumping, + and wild raving. The cures resorted to seemed on the whole to intensify + the disease: the afflicted continued dancing for hours, until they fell in + utter exhaustion. Some declared that they felt as if bathed in blood, some + saw visions, some prophesied. + </p> + <p> + Into this mass of "possession" there was also clearly poured a current of + scoundrelism which increased the disorder. + </p> + <p> + The immediate source of these manifestations seems to have been the wild + revels of St. John's Day. In those revels sundry old heathen ceremonies + had been perpetuated, but under a nominally Christian form: wild + Bacchanalian dances had thus become a semi-religious ceremonial. The + religious and social atmosphere was propitious to the development of the + germs of diabolic influence vitalized in these orgies, and they were + scattered far and wide through large tracts of the Netherlands and + Germany, and especially through the whole region of the Rhine. At Cologne + we hear of five hundred afflicted at once; at Metz of eleven hundred + dancers in the streets; at Strasburg of yet more painful manifestations; + and from these and other cities they spread through the villages and rural + districts. + </p> + <p> + The great majority of the sufferers were women, but there were many men, + and especially men whose occupations were sedentary. Remedies were tried + upon a large scale-exorcisms first, but especially pilgrimages to the + shrine of St. Vitus. The exorcisms accomplished so little that popular + faith in them grew small, and the main effect of the pilgrimages seemed to + be to increase the disorder by subjecting great crowds to the diabolic + contagion. Yet another curative means was seen in the flagellant + processions—vast crowds of men, women, and children who wandered + through the country, screaming, praying, beating themselves with whips, + imploring the Divine mercy and the intervention of St. Vitus. Most fearful + of all the main attempts at cure were the persecutions of the Jews. A + feeling had evidently spread among the people at large that the Almighty + was filled with wrath at the toleration of his enemies, and might be + propitiated by their destruction: in the principal cities and villages of + Germany, then, the Jews were plundered, tortured, and murdered by tens of + thousands. No doubt that, in all this, greed was united with fanaticism; + but the argument of fanaticism was simple and cogent; the dart which + pierced the breast of Israel at that time was winged and pointed from its + own sacred books: the biblical argument was the same used in various ages + to promote persecution; and this was, that the wrath of the Almighty was + stirred against those who tolerated his enemies, and that because of this + toleration the same curse had now come upon Europe which the prophet + Samuel had denounced against Saul for showing mercy to the enemies of + Jehovah. + </p> + <p> + It is but just to say that various popes and kings exerted themselves to + check these cruelties. Although the argument of Samuel to Saul was used + with frightful effect two hundred years later by a most conscientious pope + in spurring on the rulers of France to extirpate the Huguenots, the papacy + in the fourteenth century stood for mercy to the Jews. But even this + intervention was long without effect; the tide of popular superstition had + become too strong to be curbed even by the spiritual and temporal + powers.(386) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (386) See Wellhausen, article Israel, in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, +ninth edition; also the reprint of it in his History of Israel, London, +1885, p. 546. On the general subject of the demoniacal epidemics, see +Isensee, Geschichte der Medicin, vol. i, pp. 260 et seq.; also Hecker's +essay. As to the history of Saul, as a curious landmark in the general +development of the subject, see The Case of Saul, showing that his +Disorder was a Real Spiritual Possession, by Granville Sharp, London, +1807, passim. As to the citation of Saul's case by the reigning Pope to +spur on the French kings against the Huguenots, I hope to give a list of +authorities in a future chapter on The Church and International Law. For +the general subject, with interesting details, see Laurent, Etudes sur +l'Histoire de l'Humanities. See also Maury, La Magie et l'Astrologie +dans l'Antiquite et au Moyen Age. +</pre> + <p> + Against this overwhelming current science for many generations could do + nothing. Throughout the whole of the fifteenth century physicians appeared + to shun the whole matter. Occasionally some more thoughtful man ventured + to ascribe some phase of the disease to natural causes; but this was an + unpopular doctrine, and evidently dangerous to those who developed it. + </p> + <p> + Yet, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, cases of "possession" on a + large scale began to be brought within the scope of medical research, and + the man who led in this evolution of medical science was Paracelsus. He it + was who first bade modern Europe think for a moment upon the idea that + these diseases are inflicted neither by saints nor demons, and that the + "dancing possession" is simply a form of disease, of which the cure may be + effected by proper remedies and regimen. + </p> + <p> + Paracelsus appears to have escaped any serious interference: it took some + time, perhaps, for the theological leaders to understand that he had "let + a new idea loose upon the planet," but they soon understood it, and their + course was simple. For about fifty years the new idea was well kept under; + but in 1563 another physician, John Wier, of Cleves, revived it at much + risk to his position and reputation.(387) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (387) For Paracelsus, see Isensee, vol. i, chap. xi; also Pettigrew, +Superstitions connected with the History and Practice of Medicine and +Surgery, London, 1844, introductory chapter. For Wier, see authorities +given in my previous chapter. +</pre> + <p> + Although the new idea was thus resisted, it must have taken some hold upon + thoughtful men, for we find that in the second half of the same century + the St. Vitus's dance and forms of demoniacal possession akin to it + gradually diminished in frequency and were sometimes treated as diseases. + In the seventeenth century, so far as the north of Europe is concerned, + these displays of "possession" on a great scale had almost entirely + ceased; here and there cases appeared, but there was no longer the wild + rage extending over great districts and afflicting thousands of people. + Yet it was, as we shall see, in this same seventeenth century, in the last + expiring throes of this superstition, that it led to the worst acts of + cruelty.(388) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (388) As to this diminution of widespread epidemic at the end of the +sixteenth century, see citations from Schenck von Grafenberg in Hecker, +as above; also Horst. +</pre> + <p> + While this Satanic influence had been exerted on so great a scale + throughout northern Europe, a display strangely like it, yet strangely + unlike it, had been going on in Italy. There, too, epidemics of dancing + and jumping seized groups and communities; but they were attributed to a + physical cause—the theory being that the bite of a tarantula in some + way provoked a supernatural intervention, of which dancing was the + accompaniment and cure. + </p> + <p> + In the middle of the sixteenth century Fracastoro made an evident + impression on the leaders of Italian opinion by using medical means in the + cure of the possessed; though it is worthy of note that the medicine which + he applied successfully was such as we now know could not by any direct + effects of its own accomplish any cure: whatever effect it exerted was + wrought upon the imagination of the sufferer. This form of "possession," + then, passed out of the supernatural domain, and became known as + "tarantism." Though it continued much longer than the corresponding + manifestations in northern Europe, by the beginning of the eighteenth + century it had nearly disappeared; and, though special manifestations of + it on a small scale still break out occasionally, its main survival is the + "tarantella," which the traveller sees danced at Naples as a catchpenny + assault upon his purse.(389) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (389) See Hecker's Epidemics of the Middle Ages, pp. 87-104; also +extracts and observations in Carpenter's Mental Physiology, London, +1888, pp. 321-315; also Maudsley, Pathology of Mind, pp. 73 and +following. +</pre> + <p> + But, long before this form of "possession" had begun to disappear, there + had arisen new manifestations, apparently more inexplicable. As the first + great epidemics of dancing and jumping had their main origin in a + religious ceremony, so various new forms had their principal source in + what were supposed to be centres of religious life—in the convents, + and more especially in those for women. + </p> + <p> + Out of many examples we may take a few as typical. + </p> + <p> + In the fifteenth century the chroniclers assure us that, an inmate of a + German nunnery having been seized with a passion for biting her + companions, her mania spread until most, if not all, of her fellow-nuns + began to bite each other; and that this passion for biting passed from + convent to convent into other parts of Germany, into Holland, and even + across the Alps into Italy. + </p> + <p> + So, too, in a French convent, when a nun began to mew like a cat, others + began mewing; the disease spread, and was only checked by severe + measures.(390) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (390) See citation from Zimmermann's Solitude, in Carpenter, pp. 34, +314. +</pre> + <p> + In the sixteenth century the Protestant Reformation gave new force to + witchcraft persecutions in Germany, the new Church endeavouring to show + that in zeal and power she exceeded the old. But in France influential + opinion seemed not so favourable to these forms of diabolical influence, + especially after the publication of Montaigne's Essays, in 1580, had + spread a sceptical atmosphere over many leading minds. + </p> + <p> + In 1588 occurred in France a case which indicates the growth of this + sceptical tendency even in the higher regions of the french Church, In + that year Martha Brossier, a country girl, was, it was claimed, possessed + of the devil. The young woman was to all appearance under direct Satanic + influence. She roamed about, begging that the demon might be cast out of + her, and her imprecations and blasphemies brought consternation wherever + she went. Myth-making began on a large scale; stories grew and sped. The + Capuchin monks thundered from the pulpit throughout France regarding these + proofs of the power of Satan: the alarm spread, until at last even jovial, + sceptical King Henry IV was disquieted, and the reigning Pope was asked to + take measures to ward off the evil. + </p> + <p> + Fortunately, there then sat in the episcopal chair of Angers a prelate who + had apparently imbibed something of Montaigne's scepticism—Miron; + and, when the case was brought before him, he submitted it to the most + time-honoured of sacred tests. He first brought into the girl's presence + two bowls, one containing holy water, the other ordinary spring water, but + allowed her to draw a false inference regarding the contents of each: the + result was that at the presentation of the holy water the devils were + perfectly calm, but when tried with the ordinary water they threw Martha + into convulsions. + </p> + <p> + The next experiment made by the shrewd bishop was to similar purpose. He + commanded loudly that a book of exorcisms be brought, and under a previous + arrangement, his attendants brought him a copy of Virgil. No sooner had + the bishop begun to read the first line of the Aeneid than the devils + threw Martha into convulsions. On another occasion a Latin dictionary, + which she had reason to believe was a book of exorcisms, produced a + similar effect. + </p> + <p> + Although the bishop was thereby led to pronounce the whole matter a + mixture of insanity and imposture, the Capuchin monks denounced this view + as godless. They insisted that these tests really proved the presence of + Satan—showing his cunning in covering up the proofs of his + existence. The people at large sided with their preachers, and Martha was + taken to Paris, where various exorcisms were tried, and the Parisian mob + became as devoted to her as they had been twenty years before to the + murderers of the Huguenots, as they became two centuries later to + Robespierre, and as they more recently were to General Boulanger. + </p> + <p> + But Bishop Miron was not the only sceptic. The Cardinal de Gondi, + Archbishop of Paris, charged the most eminent physicians of the city, and + among them Riolan, to report upon the case. Various examinations were + made, and the verdict was that Martha was simply a hysterical impostor. + Thanks, then, to medical science, and to these two enlightened + ecclesiastics who summoned its aid, what fifty or a hundred years earlier + would have been the centre of a widespread epidemic of possession was + isolated, and hindered from producing a national calamity. + </p> + <p> + In the following year this healthful growth of scepticism continued. + Fourteen persons had been condemned to death for sorcery, but public + opinion was strong enough to secure a new examination by a special + commission, which reported that "the prisoners stood more in need of + medicine than of punishment," and they were released.(391) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (391) For the Brossier case, see Clameil, La Folie, tome i, livre 3, +c. 2. For the cases at Tours, see Madden, Phantasmata, vol. i, pp. 309, +310. +</pre> + <p> + But during the seventeenth century, the clergy generally having exerted + themselves heroically to remove this "evil heart of unbelief" so largely + due to Montaigne, a theological reaction was brought on not only in France + but in all parts of the Christian world, and the belief in diabolic + possession, though certainly dying, flickered up hectic, hot, and + malignant through the whole century. In 1611 we have a typical case at + Aix. An epidemic of possession having occurred there, Gauffridi, a man of + note, was burned at the stake as the cause of the trouble. Michaelis, one + of the priestly exorcists, declared that he had driven out sixty-five + hundred devils from one of the possessed. Similar epidemics occurred in + various parts of the world.(392) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (392) See Dagron, chap. ii. +</pre> + <p> + Twenty years later a far more striking case occurred at Loudun, in western + France, where a convent of Ursuline nuns was "afflicted by demons." + </p> + <p> + The convent was filled mainly with ladies of noble birth, who, not having + sufficient dower to secure husbands, had, according to the common method + of the time, been made nuns. + </p> + <p> + It is not difficult to understand that such an imprisonment of a multitude + of women of different ages would produce some woeful effects. Any reader + of Manzoni's Promessi Sposi, with its wonderful portrayal of the feelings + and doings of a noble lady kept in a convent against her will, may have + some idea of the rage and despair which must have inspired such + assemblages in which pride, pauperism, and the attempted suppression of + the instincts of humanity wrought a fearful work. + </p> + <p> + What this work was may be seen throughout the Middle Ages; but it is + especially in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that we find it + frequently taking shape in outbursts of diabolic possession.(393) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (393) On monasteries as centres of "possession" and hysterical +epidemics, see Figuier, Le Merveilleux, p. 40 and following; also +Calmeil, Langin, Kirchhoff, Maudsley, and others. On similar results +from excitement at Protestant meetings in Scotland and camp meetings in +England and America, see Hecker's Essay, concluding chapters. +</pre> + <p> + In this case at Loudun, the usual evidences of Satanic influence appeared. + One after another of the inmates fell into convulsions: some showed + physical strength apparently supernatural; some a keenness of perception + quite as surprising; many howled forth blasphemies and obscenities. + </p> + <p> + Near the convent dwelt a priest—Urbain Grandier—noted for his + brilliancy as a writer and preacher, but careless in his way of living. + Several of the nuns had evidently conceived a passion for him, and in + their wild rage and despair dwelt upon his name. In the same city, too, + were sundry ecclesiastics and laymen with whom Grandier had fallen into + petty neighbourhood quarrels, and some of these men held the main control + of the convent. + </p> + <p> + Out of this mixture of "possession" within the convent and malignity + without it came a charge that Grandier had bewitched the young women. + </p> + <p> + The Bishop of Poictiers took up the matter. A trial was held, and it was + noted that, whenever Grandier appeared, the "possessed" screamed, + shrieked, and showed every sign of diabolic influence. Grandier fought + desperately, and appealed to the Archbishop of Bordeaux, De Sourdis. The + archbishop ordered a more careful examination, and, on separating the nuns + from each other and from certain monks who had been bitterly hostile to + Grandier, such glaring discrepancies were found in their testimony that + the whole accusation was brought to naught. + </p> + <p> + But the enemies of Satan and of Grandier did not rest. Through their + efforts Cardinal Richelieu, who appears to have had an old grudge against + Grandier, sent a representative, Laubardemont, to make another + investigation. Most frightful scenes were now enacted: the whole convent + resounded more loudly than ever with shrieks, groans, howling, and + cursing, until finally Grandier, though even in the agony of torture he + refused to confess the crimes that his enemies suggested, was hanged and + burned. + </p> + <p> + From this centre the epidemic spread: multitudes of women and men were + affected by it in various convents; several of the great cities of the + south and west of France came under the same influence; the "possession" + went on for several years longer and then gradually died out, though + scattered cases have occurred from that day to this.(394) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (394) Among the many statements of Grandier's case, one of the best in +English may be found in Trollope's Sketches from French History, London, +1878. See also Bazin, Louis XIII. +</pre> + <p> + A few years later we have an even more striking example among the French + Protestants. The Huguenots, who had taken refuge in the mountains of the + Cevennes to escape persecution, being pressed more and more by the + cruelties of Louis XIV, began to show signs of a high degree of religious + exaltation. Assembled as they were for worship in wild and desert places, + an epidemic broke out among them, ascribed by them to the Almighty, but by + their opponents to Satan. Men, women, and children preached and + prophesied. Large assemblies were seized with trembling. Some underwent + the most terrible tortures without showing any signs of suffering. Marshal + de Villiers, who was sent against them, declared that he saw a town in + which all the women and girls, without exception, were possessed of the + devil, and ran leaping and screaming through the streets. Cases like this, + inexplicable to the science of the time, gave renewed strength to the + theological view.(395) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (395) See Bersot, Mesmer et la Magnetisme animal, third edition, Paris, +1864, pp. 95 et seq. +</pre> + <p> + Toward the end of the same century similar manifestations began to appear + on a large scale in America. + </p> + <p> + The life of the early colonists in New England was such as to give rapid + growth to the germs of the doctrine of possession brought from the mother + country. Surrounded by the dark pine forests; having as their neighbours + Indians, who were more than suspected of being children of Satan; harassed + by wild beasts apparently sent by the powers of evil to torment the elect; + with no varied literature to while away the long winter evenings; with few + amusements save neighbourhood quarrels; dwelling intently on every text of + Scripture which supported their gloomy theology, and adopting its most + literal interpretation, it is not strange that they rapidly developed + ideas regarding the darker side of nature.(396) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (396) For the idea that America before the Pilgims had been especially +given over to Satan, see the literature of the early Puritan period, +and especially the poetry of Wigglesworth, treated in Tylor's History of +American Literature, vol. ii, p. 25 et seq. +</pre> + <p> + This fear of witchcraft received a powerful stimulus from the treatises of + learned men. Such works, coming from Europe, which was at that time filled + with the superstition, acted powerfully upon conscientious preachers, and + were brought by them to bear upon the people at large. Naturally, then, + throughout the latter half of the seventeenth century we find scattered + cases of diabolic possession. At Boston, Springfield, Hartford, Groton, + and other towns, cases occurred, and here and there we hear of + death-sentences. + </p> + <p> + In the last quarter of the seventeenth century the fruit of these ideas + began to ripen. In the year 1684 Increase Mather published his book, + Remarkable Providences, laying stress upon diabolic possession and + witchcraft. This book, having been sent over to England, exercised an + influence there, and came back with the approval of no less a man than + Richard Baxter: by this its power at home was increased. + </p> + <p> + In 1688 a poor family in Boston was afflicted by demons: four children, + the eldest thirteen years of age, began leaping and barking like dogs or + purring like cats, and complaining of being pricked, pinched, and cut; + and, to help the matter, an old Irishwoman was tried and executed. + </p> + <p> + All this belief might have passed away like a troubled dream had it not + become incarnate in a strong man. This man was Cotton Mather, the son of + Increase Mather. Deeply religious, possessed of excellent abilities, a + great scholar, anxious to promote the welfare of his flock in this world + and in the next, he was far in advance of ecclesiastics generally on + nearly all the main questions between science and theology. He came out of + his earlier superstition regarding the divine origin of the Hebrew + punctuation; he opposed the old theologic idea regarding the taking of + interest for money; he favoured inoculation as a preventive of smallpox + when a multitude of clergymen and laymen opposed it; he accepted the + Newtonian astronomy despite the outcries against its "atheistic tendency"; + he took ground against the time-honoured dogma that comets are "signs and + wonders." He had, indeed, some of the defects of his qualities, and among + them pedantic vanity, pride of opinion, and love of power; but he was for + his time remarkably liberal and undoubtedly sincere. He had thrown off a + large part of his father's theology, but one part of it he could not throw + off: he was one of the best biblical scholars of his time, and he could + not break away from the fact that the sacred Scriptures explicitly + recognise witchcraft and demoniacal possession as realities, and enjoin + against witchcraft the penalty of death. Therefore it was that in 1689 he + published his Memorable Providences relating to Witchcrafts and + Possessions. The book, according to its title-page, was "recommended by + the Ministers of Boston and Charleston," and its stories soon became the + familiar reading of men, women, and children throughout New England. + </p> + <p> + Out of all these causes thus brought to bear upon public opinion began in + 1692 a new outbreak of possession, which is one of the most instructive in + history. The Rev. Samuel Parris was the minister of the church in Salem, + and no pope ever had higher ideas of his own infallibility, no bishop a + greater love of ceremony, no inquisitor a greater passion for prying and + spying.(397) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (397) For curious examples of this, see Upham's History of Salem +Witchcraft, vol. i. +</pre> + <p> + Before long Mr. Parris had much upon his hands. Many of his hardy, + independent parishioners disliked his ways. Quarrels arose. Some of the + leading men of the congregation were pitted against him. The previous + minister, George Burroughs, had left the germs of troubles and quarrels, + and to these were now added new complications arising from the assumptions + of Parris. There were innumerable wranglings and lawsuits; in fact, all + the essential causes for Satanic interference which we saw at work in and + about the monastery at Loudun, and especially the turmoil of a petty + village where there is no intellectual activity, and where men and women + find their chief substitute for it in squabbles, religious, legal, + political, social, and personal. + </p> + <p> + In the darkened atmosphere thus charged with the germs of disease it was + suddenly discovered that two young girls in the family of Mr. Parris were + possessed of devils: they complained of being pinched, pricked, and cut, + fell into strange spasms and made strange speeches—showing the signs + of diabolic possession handed down in fireside legends or dwelt upon in + popular witch literature—and especially such as had lately been + described by Cotton Mather in his book on Memorable Providences. The two + girls, having been brought by Mr. Parris and others to tell who had + bewitched them, first charged an old Indian woman, and the poor old Indian + husband was led to join in the charge. This at once afforded new scope for + the activity of Mr. Parris. Magnifying his office, he immediately began + making a great stir in Salem and in the country round about. Two + magistrates were summoned. With them came a crowd, and a court was held at + the meeting-house. The scenes which then took place would have been the + richest of farces had they not led to events so tragical. The possessed + went into spasms at the approach of those charged with witchcraft, and + when the poor old men and women attempted to attest their innocence they + were overwhelmed with outcries by the possessed, quotations of Scripture + by the ministers, and denunciations by the mob. One especially—Ann + Putnam, a child of twelve years—showed great precocity and played a + striking part in the performances. The mania spread to other children; and + two or three married women also, seeing the great attention paid to the + afflicted, and influenced by that epidemic of morbid imitation which + science now recognises in all such cases, soon became similarly afflicted, + and in their turn made charges against various persons. The Indian woman + was flogged by her master, Mr. Parris, until she confessed relations with + Satan; and others were forced or deluded into confession. These hysterical + confessions, the results of unbearable torture, or the reminiscences of + dreams, which had been prompted by the witch legends and sermons of the + period, embraced such facts as flying through the air to witch gatherings, + partaking of witch sacraments, signing a book presented by the devil, and + submitting to Satanic baptism. The possessed had begun with charging their + possession upon poor and vagrant old women, but ere long, emboldened by + their success, they attacked higher game, struck at some of the foremost + people of the region, and did not cease until several of these were + condemned to death, and every man, woman, and child brought under a reign + of terror. Many fled outright, and one of the foremost citizens of Salem + went constantly armed, and kept one of his horses saddled in the stable to + flee if brought under accusation. The hysterical ingenuity of the + possessed women grew with their success. They insisted that they saw + devils prompting the accused to defend themselves in court. Did one of the + accused clasp her hands in despair, the possessed clasped theirs; did the + accused, in appealing to Heaven, make any gesture, the possessed + simultaneously imitated it; did the accused in weariness drop her head, + the possessed dropped theirs, and declared that the witch was trying to + break their necks. The court-room resounded with groans, shrieks, prayers, + and curses; judges, jury, and people were aghast, and even the accused + were sometimes thus led to believe in their own guilt. + </p> + <p> + Very striking in all these cases was the alloy of frenzy with trickery. In + most of the madness there was method. Sundry witches charged by the + possessed had been engaged in controversy with the Salem church people. + Others of the accused had quarrelled with Mr. Parris. Still others had + been engaged in old lawsuits against persons more or less connected with + the girls. One of the most fearful charges, which cost the life of a noble + and lovely woman, arose undoubtedly from her better style of dress and + living. Old slumbering neighbourhood or personal quarrels bore in this way + a strange fruitage of revenge; for the cardinal doctrine of a fanatic's + creed is that his enemies are the enemies of God. + </p> + <p> + Any person daring to hint the slightest distrust of the proceedings was in + danger of being immediately brought under accusation of a league with + Satan. Husbands and children were thus brought to the gallows for daring + to disbelieve these charges against their wives and mothers. Some of the + clergy were accused for endeavouring to save members of their + churches.(398) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (398) This is admirably brought out by Upham, and the lawyerlike +thoroughness with which he has examined all these hidden springs of the +charges is one of the main things which render his book one of the +most valuable contributions to the history and philosophy of demoniacal +possession ever written. +</pre> + <p> + One poor woman was charged with "giving a look toward the great + meeting-house of Salem, and immediately a demon entered the house and tore + down a part of it." This cause for the falling of a bit of poorly nailed + wainscoting seemed perfectly satisfactory to Dr. Cotton Mather, as well as + to the judge and jury, and she was hanged, protesting her innocence. Still + another lady, belonging to one of the most respected families of the + region, was charged with the crime of witchcraft. The children were + fearfully afflicted whenever she appeared near them. It seemed never to + occur to any one that a bitter old feud between the Rev. Mr. Parris and + the family of the accused might have prejudiced the children and directed + their attention toward the woman. No account was made of the fact that her + life had been entirely blameless; and yet, in view of the wretched + insufficiency of proof, the jury brought in a verdict of not guilty. As + they brought in this verdict, all the children began to shriek and scream, + until the court committed the monstrous wrong of causing her to be + indicted anew. In order to warrant this, the judge referred to one + perfectly natural and harmless expression made by the woman when under + examination. The jury at last brought her in guilty. She was condemned; + and, having been brought into the church heavily ironed, was solemnly + excommunicated and delivered over to Satan by the minister. Some good + sense still prevailed, and the Governor reprieved her; but ecclesiastical + pressure and popular clamour were too powerful. The Governor was induced + to recall his reprieve, and she was executed, protesting her innocence and + praying for her enemies.(399) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (399) See Drake, The Witchcraft Delusion in New England, vol. iii, pp. +34 et seq. +</pre> + <p> + Another typical case was presented. The Rev. Mr. Burroughs, against whom + considerable ill will had been expressed, and whose petty parish quarrel + with the powerful Putnam family had led to his dismissal from his + ministry, was named by the possessed as one of those who plagued them, one + of the most influential among the afflicted being Ann Putnam. Mr. + Burroughs had led a blameless life, the main thing charged against him by + the Putnams being that he insisted strenuously that his wife should not go + about the parish talking of her own family matters. He was charged with + afflicting the children, convicted, and executed. At the last moment he + repeated the Lord's Prayer solemnly and fully, which it was supposed that + no sorcerer could do, and this, together with his straightforward + Christian utterances at the execution, shook the faith of many in the + reality of diabolic possession. Ere long it was known that one of the + girls had acknowledged that she had belied some persons who had been + executed, and especially Mr. Burroughs, and that she had begged + forgiveness; but this for a time availed nothing. Persons who would not + confess were tied up and put to a sort of torture which was effective in + securing new revelations. + </p> + <p> + In the case of Giles Corey the horrors of the persecution culminated. + Seeing that his doom was certain, and wishing to preserve his family from + attainder and their property from confiscation, he refused to plead. + Though eighty years of age, he was therefore pressed to death, and when, + in his last agonies, his tongue was pressed out of his mouth, the sheriff + with his walking-stick thrust it back again. + </p> + <p> + Everything was made to contribute to the orthodox view of possession. On + one occasion, when a cart conveying eight condemned persons to the place + of execution stuck fast in the mire, some of the possessed declared that + they saw the devil trying to prevent the punishment of his associates. + Confessions of witchcraft abounded; but the way in which these confessions + were obtained is touchingly exhibited in a statement afterward made by + several women. In explaining the reasons why, when charged with afflicting + sick persons, they made a false confession, they said: + </p> + <p> + "... By reason of that suddain surprizal, we knowing ourselves altogether + Innocent of that Crime, we were all exceedingly astonished and amazed, and + consternated and affrighted even out of our Reason; and our nearest and + dearest Relations, seeing us in that dreadful condition, and knowing our + great danger, apprehending that there was no other way to save our + lives,... out of tender... pitty persuaded us to confess what we did + confess. And indeed that Confession, that it is said we made, was no other + than what was suggested to us by some Gentlemen; they telling us, that we + were Witches, and they knew it, and we knew it, and they knew that we knew + it, which made us think that it was so; and our understanding, our reason, + and our faculties almost gone, we were not capable of judging our + condition; as also the hard measures they used with us, rendered us + uncapable of making our Defence, but said anything and everything which + they desired, and most of what we said, was in effect a consenting to what + they said...."(400) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (400) See Calef, in Drake, vol ii; also Upham. +</pre> + <p> + Case after case, in which hysteria, fanaticism, cruelty, injustice, and + trickery played their part, was followed up to the scaffold. In a short + time twenty persons had been put to a cruel death, and the number of the + accused grew larger and larger. The highest position and the noblest + character formed no barrier. Daily the possessed became more bold, more + tricky, and more wild. No plea availed anything. In behalf of several + women, whose lives had been of the purest and gentlest, petitions were + presented, but to no effect. A scriptural text was always ready to aid in + the repression of mercy: it was remembered that "Satan himself is + transformed into an angel of light," and above all resounded the Old + Testament injunction, which had sent such multitudes in Europe to the + torture-chamber and the stake, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." + </p> + <p> + Such clergymen as Noyes, Parris, and Mather, aided by such judges as + Stoughton and Hathorn, left nothing undone to stimulate these proceedings. + The great Cotton Mather based upon this outbreak of disease thus treated + his famous book, Wonders of the Invisible World, thanking God for the + triumphs over Satan thus gained at Salem; and his book received the + approbation of the Governor of the Province, the President of Harvard + College, and various eminent theologians in Europe as well as in America. + </p> + <p> + But, despite such efforts as these, observation, and thought upon + observation, which form the beginning of all true science, brought in a + new order of things. The people began to fall away. Justice Bradstreet, + having committed thirty or forty persons, became aroused to the absurdity + of the whole matter; the minister of Andover had the good sense to resist + the theological view; even so high a personage as Lady Phips, the wife of + the Governor, began to show lenity. + </p> + <p> + Each of these was, in consequence of this disbelief, charged with + collusion with Satan; but such charges seemed now to lose their force. + </p> + <p> + In the midst of all this delusion and terrorism stood Cotton Mather firm + as ever. His efforts to uphold the declining superstition were heroic. But + he at last went one step too far. Being himself possessed of a mania for + myth-making and wonder-mongering, and having described a case of + witchcraft with possibly greater exaggeration than usual, he was + confronted by Robert Calef. Calef was a Boston merchant, who appears to + have united the good sense of a man of business to considerable shrewdness + in observation, power in thought, and love for truth; and he began writing + to Mather and others, to show the weak points in the system. Mather, + indignant that a person so much his inferior dared dissent from his + opinion, at first affected to despise Calef; but, as Calef pressed him + more and more closely, Mather denounced him, calling him among other + things "A Coal from Hell." All to no purpose: Calef fastened still more + firmly upon the flanks of the great theologian. Thought and reason now + began to resume their sway. + </p> + <p> + The possessed having accused certain men held in very high respect, doubts + began to dawn upon the community at large. Here was the repetition of that + which had set men thinking in the German bishoprics when those under trial + for witchcraft there had at last, in their desperation or madness, charged + the very bishops and the judges upon the bench with sorcery. The party of + reason grew stronger. The Rev. Mr. Parris was soon put upon the defensive: + for some of the possessed began to confess that they had accused people + wrongfully. Herculean efforts were made by certain of the clergy and + devout laity to support the declining belief, but the more thoughtful + turned more and more against it; jurymen prominent in convictions solemnly + retracted their verdicts and publicly craved pardon of God and man. Most + striking of all was the case of Justice Sewall. A man of the highest + character, he had in view of authority deduced from Scripture and the + principles laid down by the great English judges, unhesitatingly condemned + the accused; but reason now dawned upon him. He looked back and saw the + baselessness of the whole proceedings, and made a public statement of his + errors. His diary contains many passages showing deep contrition, and ever + afterward, to the end of his life, he was wont, on one day in the year, to + enter into solitude, and there remain all the day long in fasting, prayer, + and penitence. + </p> + <p> + Chief-Justice Stoughton never yielded. To the last he lamented the "evil + spirit of unbelief" which was thwarting the glorious work of freeing New + England from demons. + </p> + <p> + The church of Salem solemnly revoked the excommunications of the condemned + and drove Mr. Parris from the pastorate. Cotton Mather passed his last + years in groaning over the decline of the faith and the ingratitude of a + people for whom he had done so much. Very significant is one of his + complaints, since it shows the evolution of a more scientific mode of + thought abroad as well as at home: he laments in his diary that English + publishers gladly printed Calef's book, but would no longer publish his + own, and he declares this "an attack upon the glory of the Lord." + </p> + <p> + About forty years after the New England epidemic of "possession" occurred + another typical series of phenomena in France. In 1727 there died at the + French capital a simple and kindly ecclesiastic, the Archdeacon Paris. He + had lived a pious, Christian life, and was endeared to multitudes by his + charity; unfortunately, he had espoused the doctrine of Jansen on grace + and free will, and, though he remained in the Gallican Church, he and + those who thought like him were opposed by the Jesuits, and finally + condemned by a papal bull. + </p> + <p> + His remains having been buried in the cemetery of St. Medard, the + Jansenists flocked to say their prayers at his grave, and soon miracles + began to be wrought there. Ere long they were multiplied. The sick being + brought and laid upon the tombstone, many were cured. Wonderful stories + were attested by eye-witnesses. The myth-making tendency—the passion + for developing, enlarging, and spreading tales of wonder—came into + full play and was given free course. + </p> + <p> + Many thoughtful men satisfied themselves of the truth of these + representations. One of the foremost English scholars came over, examined + into them, and declared that there could be no doubt as to the reality of + the cures. + </p> + <p> + This state of things continued for about four years, when, in 1731, more + violent effects showed themselves. Sundry persons approaching the tomb + were thrown into convulsions, hysterics, and catalepsy; these diseases + spread, became epidemic, and soon multitudes were similarly afflicted. + Both religious parties made the most of these cases. In vain did such + great authorities in medical science as Hecquet and Lorry attribute the + whole to natural causes: the theologians on both sides declared them + supernatural—the Jansenists attributing them to God, the Jesuits to + Satan. + </p> + <p> + Of late years such cases have been treated in France with much shrewdness. + When, about the middle of the present century, the Arab priests in Algiers + tried to arouse fanaticism against the French Christians by performing + miracles, the French Government, instead of persecuting the priests, sent + Robert-Houdin, the most renowned juggler of his time, to the scene of + action, and for every Arab miracle Houdin performed two: did an Arab + marabout turn a rod into a serpent, Houdin turned his rod into two + serpents; and afterward showed the people how he did it. + </p> + <p> + So, too, at the last International Exposition, the French Government, + observing the evil effects produced by the mania for table turning and + tipping, took occasion, when a great number of French schoolmasters and + teachers were visiting the exposition, to have public lectures given in + which all the business of dark closets, hand-tying, materialization of + spirits, presenting the faces of the departed, and ghostly portraiture was + fully performed by professional mountebanks, and afterward as fully + explained. + </p> + <p> + So in this case. The Government simply ordered the gate of the cemetery to + be locked, and when the crowd could no longer approach the tomb the + miracles ceased. A little Parisian ridicule helped to end the matter. A + wag wrote up over the gate of the cemetery. + </p> + <p> + "De par le Roi, defense a Dieu De faire des miracles dans ce lieu"— + </p> + <p> + which, being translated from doggerel French into doggerel English, is— + </p> + <p> + "By order of the king, the Lord must forbear To work any more of his + miracles here." + </p> + <p> + But the theological spirit remained powerful. The French Revolution had + not then intervened to bring it under healthy limits. The agitation was + maintained, and, though the miracles and cases of possession were stopped + in the cemetery, it spread. Again full course was given to myth-making and + the retailing of wonders. It was said that men had allowed themselves to + be roasted before slow fires, and had been afterward found uninjured; that + some had enormous weights piled upon them, but had supernatural powers of + resistance given them; and that, in one case, a voluntary crucifixion had + taken place. + </p> + <p> + This agitation was long, troublesome, and no doubt robbed many temporarily + or permanently of such little brains as they possessed. It was only when + the violence had become an old story and the charm of novelty had entirely + worn off, and the afflicted found themselves no longer regarded with + especial interest, that the epidemic died away.(401) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (401) See Madden, Phantasmata, chap. xiv; also Sir James Stephen, +History of France, lecture xxvi; also Henry Martin, Histoire de France, +vol. xv, pp. 168 et seq.; also Calmeil, liv. v, chap. xxiv; also +Hecker's essay; and, for samples of myth-making, see the apocryphal +Souvenirs de Crequy. +</pre> + <p> + But in Germany at that time the outcome of this belief was far more cruel. + In 1749 Maria Renata Singer, sub-prioress of a convent at Wurzburg, was + charged with bewitching her fellow-nuns. There was the usual story—the + same essential facts as at Loudun—women shut up against their will, + dreams of Satan disguised as a young man, petty jealousies, spites, + quarrels, mysterious uproar, trickery, utensils thrown about in a way not + to be accounted for, hysterical shrieking and convulsions, and, finally, + the torture, confession, and execution of the supposed culprit.(402) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (402) See Soldan, Scherr, Diefenbach, and others. +</pre> + <p> + Various epidemics of this sort broke out from time to time in other parts + of the world, though happily, as modern scepticism prevailed, with less + cruel results. + </p> + <p> + In 1760 some congregations of Calvinistic Methodists in Wales became so + fervent that they began leaping for joy. The mania spread, and gave rise + to a sect called the "Jumpers." A similar outbreak took place afterward in + England, and has been repeated at various times and places since in our + own country.(403) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (403) See Adam's Dictionary of All Religions, article on Jumpers; also +Hecker. +</pre> + <p> + In 1780 came another outbreak in France; but this time it was not the + Jansenists who were affected, but the strictly orthodox. A large number of + young girls between twelve and nineteen years of age, having been brought + together at the church of St. Roch, in Paris, with preaching and + ceremonies calculated to arouse hysterics, one of them fell into + convulsions. Immediately other children were similarly taken, until some + fifty or sixty were engaged in the same antics. This mania spread to other + churches and gatherings, proved very troublesome, and in some cases led to + results especially painful. + </p> + <p> + About the same period came a similar outbreak among the Protestants of the + Shetland Isles. A woman having been seized with convulsions at church, the + disease spread to others, mainly women, who fell into the usual + contortions and wild shriekings. A very effective cure proved to be a + threat to plunge the diseased into a neighbouring pond. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0067" id="link2H_4_0067"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II. BEGINNINGS OF HELPFUL SCEPTICISM. + </h2> + <p> + But near the end of the eighteenth century a fact very important for + science was established. It was found that these manifestations do not + arise in all cases from supernatural sources. In 1787 came the noted case + at Hodden Bridge, in Lancashire. A girl working in a cotton manufactory + there put a mouse into the bosom of another girl who had a great dread of + mice. The girl thus treated immediately went into convulsions, which + lasted twenty-four hours. Shortly afterward three other girls were seized + with like convulsions, a little later six more, and then others, until, in + all, twenty-four were attacked. Then came a fact throwing a flood of light + upon earlier occurrences. This epidemic, being noised abroad, soon spread + to another factory five miles distant. The patients there suffered from + strangulation, danced, tore their hair, and dashed their heads against the + walls. There was a strong belief that it was a disease introduced in + cotton, but a resident physician amused the patients with electric shocks, + and the disease died out. + </p> + <p> + In 1801 came a case of like import in the Charite Hospital in Berlin. A + girl fell into strong convulsions. The disease proved contagious, several + others becoming afflicted in a similar way; but nearly all were finally + cured, principally by the administration of opium, which appears at that + time to have been a fashionable remedy. + </p> + <p> + Of the same sort was a case at Lyons in 1851. Sixty women were working + together in a shop, when one of them, after a bitter quarrel with her + husband, fell into a violent nervous paroxysm. The other women, + sympathizing with her, gathered about to assist her, but one after another + fell into a similar condition, until twenty were thus prostrated, and a + more general spread of the epidemic was only prevented by clearing the + premises.(404) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (404) For these examples and others, see Tuke, Influence of the Mind +upon the Body, vol. i, pp. 100, 277; also Hecker's essay. +</pre> + <p> + But while these cases seemed, in the eye of Science, fatal to the old + conception of diabolic influence, the great majority of such epidemics, + when unexplained, continued to give strength to the older view. + </p> + <p> + In Roman Catholic countries these manifestations, as we have seen, have + generally appeared in convents, or in churches where young girls are + brought together for their first communion, or at shrines where miracles + are supposed to be wrought. + </p> + <p> + In Protestant countries they appear in times of great religious + excitement, and especially when large bodies of young women are submitted + to the influence of noisy and frothy preachers. Well-known examples of + this in America are seen in the "Jumpers," "Jerkers," and various revival + extravagances, especially among the negroes and "poor whites" of the + Southern States. + </p> + <p> + The proper conditions being given for the development of the disease—generally + a congregation composed mainly of young women—any fanatic or + overzealous priest or preacher may stimulate hysterical seizures, which + are very likely to become epidemic. + </p> + <p> + As a recent typical example on a large scale, I take the case of diabolic + possession at Morzine, a French village on the borders of Switzerland; and + it is especially instructive, because it was thoroughly investigated by a + competent man of science. + </p> + <p> + About the year 1853 a sick girl at Morzine, acting strangely, was thought + to be possessed of the devil, and was taken to Besancon, where she seems + to have fallen into the hands of kindly and sensible ecclesiastics, and, + under the operation of the relics preserved in the cathedral there—especially + the handkerchief of Christ—the devil was cast out and she was cured. + Naturally, much was said of the affair among the peasantry, and soon other + cases began to show themselves. The priest at Morzine attempted to quiet + the matter by avowing his disbelief in such cases of possession; but + immediately a great outcry was raised against him, especially by the + possessed themselves. The matter was now widely discussed, and the malady + spread rapidly; myth-making and wonder-mongering began; amazing accounts + were thus developed and sent out to the world. The afflicted were said to + have climbed trees like squirrels; to have shown superhuman strength; to + have exercised the gift of tongues, speaking in German, Latin, and even in + Arabic; to have given accounts of historical events they had never heard + of; and to have revealed the secret thoughts of persons about them. + Mingled with such exhibitions of power were outbursts of blasphemy and + obscenity. + </p> + <p> + But suddenly came something more miraculous, apparently, than all these + wonders. Without any assigned cause, this epidemic of possession + diminished and the devil disappeared. + </p> + <p> + Not long after this, Prof. Tissot, an eminent member of the medical + faculty at Dijon, visited the spot and began a series of researches, of + which he afterward published a full account. He tells us that he found + some reasons for the sudden departure of Satan which had never been + published. He discovered that the Government had quietly removed one or + two very zealous ecclesiastics to another parish, had sent the police to + Morzine to maintain order, and had given instructions that those who acted + outrageously should be simply treated as lunatics and sent to asylums. + This policy, so accordant with French methods of administration, cast out + the devil: the possessed were mainly cured, and the matter appeared ended. + </p> + <p> + But Dr. Tissot found a few of the diseased still remaining, and he soon + satisfied himself by various investigations and experiments that they were + simply suffering from hysteria. One of his investigations is especially + curious. In order to observe the patients more carefully, he invited some + of them to dine with him, gave them without their knowledge holy water in + their wine or their food, and found that it produced no effect whatever, + though its results upon the demons when the possessed knew of its presence + had been very marked. Even after large draughts of holy water had been + thus given, the possessed remained afflicted, urged that the devil should + be cast out, and some of them even went into convulsions; the devil + apparently speaking from their mouths. It was evident that Satan had not + the remotest idea that he had been thoroughly dosed with the most + effective medicine known to the older theology.(405) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (405) For an amazing delineation of the curative and other virtues of +holy water, see the Abbe Gaume, L'Eau benite au XIXme Siecle, Paris, +1866. +</pre> + <p> + At last Tissot published the results of his experiments, and the + stereotyped answer was soon made. It resembled the answer made by the + clerical opponents of Galileo when he showed them the moons of Jupiter + through his telescope, and they declared that the moons were created by + the telescope. The clerical opponents of Tissot insisted that the + non-effect of the holy water upon the demons proved nothing save the + extraordinary cunning of Satan; that the archfiend wished it to be thought + that he does not exist, and so overcame his repugnance to holy water, + gulping it down in order to conceal his presence. + </p> + <p> + Dr. Tissot also examined into the gift of tongues exercised by the + possessed. As to German and Latin, no great difficulty was presented: it + was by no means hard to suppose that some of the girls might have learned + some words of the former language in the neighbouring Swiss cantons where + German was spoken, or even in Germany itself; and as to Latin, considering + that they had heard it from their childhood in the church, there seemed + nothing very wonderful in their uttering some words in that language also. + As to Arabic, had they really spoken it, that might have been accounted + for by the relations of the possessed with Zouaves or Spahis from the + French army; but, as Tissot could discover no such relations, he + investigated this point as the most puzzling of all. + </p> + <p> + On a close inquiry, he found that all the wonderful examples of speaking + Arabic were reduced to one. He then asked whether there was any other + person speaking or knowing Arabic in the town. He was answered that there + was not. He asked whether any person had lived there, so far as any one + could remember, who had spoken or understood Arabic, and he was answered + in the negative. + </p> + <p> + He then asked the witnesses how they knew that the language spoken by the + girl was Arabic: no answer was vouchsafed him; but he was overwhelmed with + such stories as that of a pig which, at sight of the cross on the village + church, suddenly refused to go farther; and he was denounced thoroughly in + the clerical newspapers for declining to accept such evidence. + </p> + <p> + At Tissot's visit in 1863 the possession had generally ceased, and the + cases left were few and quiet. But his visits stirred a new controversy, + and its echoes were long and loud in the pulpits and clerical journals. + Believers insisted that Satan had been removed by the intercession of the + Blessed Virgin; unbelievers hinted that the main cause of the deliverance + was the reluctance of the possessed to be shut up in asylums. + </p> + <p> + Under these circumstances the Bishop of Annecy announced that he would + visit Morzine to administer Confirmation, and word appears to have spread + that he would give a more orthodox completion to the work already done, by + exorcising the devils who remained. Immediately several new cases of + possession appeared; young girls who had been cured were again affected; + the embers thus kindled were fanned into a flame by a "mission" which + sundry priests held in the parish to arouse the people to their religious + duties—a mission in Roman Catholic countries being akin to a + "revival" among some Protestant sects. Multitudes of young women, excited + by the preaching and appeals of the clergy, were again thrown into the old + disease, and at the coming of the good bishop it culminated. + </p> + <p> + The account is given in the words of an eye-witness: + </p> + <p> + "At the solemn entrance of the bishop into the church, the possessed + persons threw themselves on the ground before him, or endeavoured to throw + themselves upon him, screaming frightfully, cursing, blaspheming, so that + the people at large were struck with horror. The possessed followed the + bishop, hooted him, and threatened him, up to the middle of the church. + Order was only established by the intervention of the soldiers. During the + confirmation the diseased redoubled their howls and infernal + vociferations, and tried to spit in the face of the bishop and to tear off + his pastoral raiment. At the moment when the prelate gave his benediction + a still more outrageous scene took place. The violence of the diseased was + carried to fury, and from all parts of the church arose yells and fearful + howling; so frightful was the din that tears fell from the eyes of many of + the spectators, and many strangers were thrown into consternation." + </p> + <p> + Among the very large number of these diseased persons there were only two + men; of the remainder only two were of advanced age; the great majority + were young women between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five years. + </p> + <p> + The public authorities shortly afterward intervened, and sought to cure + the disease and to draw the people out of their mania by singing, dancing, + and sports of various sorts, until at last it was brought under + control.(406) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (406) See Tissot, L'Imagination: ses Bienfaits et ses Egarements sutout +dans le Domaine du Merveilleux, Paris, 1868, liv. iv, ch. vii, S 7: +Les Possedees de Morzine; also Constans, Relation sur une Epidemie de +Hystero-Demonopathies, Paris, 1863. +</pre> + <p> + Scenes similar to these, in their essential character, have arisen more + recently in Protestant countries, but with the difference that what has + been generally attributed by Roman Catholic ecclesiastics to Satan is + attributed by Protestant ecclesiastics to the Almighty. Typical among the + greater exhibitions of this were those which began in the Methodist chapel + at Redruth in Cornwall—convulsions, leaping, jumping, until some + four thousand persons were seized by it. The same thing is seen in the + ruder parts of America at "revivals" and camp meetings. Nor in the ruder + parts of America alone. In June, 1893, at a funeral in the city of + Brooklyn, one of the mourners having fallen into hysterical fits, several + other cases at once appeared in various parts of the church edifice, and + some of the patients were so seriously affected that they were taken to a + hospital. + </p> + <p> + In still another field these exhibitions are seen, but more after a + medieval pattern: in the Tigretier of Abyssinia we have epidemics of + dancing which seek and obtain miraculous cures. + </p> + <p> + Reports of similar manifestations are also sent from missionaries from the + west coast of Africa, one of whom sees in some of them the characteristics + of cases of possession mentioned in our Gospels, and is therefore inclined + to attribute them to Satan.(407) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (407) For the cases in Brooklyn, see the New York Tribune of about June +10, 1893. For the Tigretier, with especially interesting citations, see +Hecker, chap. iii, sec. 1. For the cases in western Africa, see the Rev. +J. L. Wilson, Western Africa, p. 217. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0068" id="link2H_4_0068"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III. THEOLOGICAL "RESTATEMENTS."—FINAL TRIUMPH OF THE SCIENTIFIC + VIEW + </h2> + <p> + AND METHODS. + </p> + <p> + But, happily, long before these latter occurrences, science had come into + the field and was gradually diminishing this class of diseases. Among the + earlier workers to this better purpose was the great Dutch physician + Boerhaave. Finding in one of the wards in the hospital at Haarlem a number + of women going into convulsions and imitating each other in various acts + of frenzy, he immediately ordered a furnace of blazing coals into the + midst of the ward, heated cauterizing irons, and declared that he would + burn the arms of the first woman who fell into convulsions. No more cases + occurred.(408) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (408) See Figuier, Histoire de Merveilleux, vol. i, p. 403. +</pre> + <p> + These and similar successful dealings of medical science with mental + disease brought about the next stage in the theological development. The + Church sought to retreat, after the usual manner, behind a compromise. + Early in the eighteenth century appeared a new edition of the great work + by the Jesuit Delrio which for a hundred years had been a text-book for + the use of ecclesiastics in fighting witchcraft; but in this edition the + part played by Satan in diseases was changed: it was suggested that, while + diseases have natural causes, it is necessary that Satan enter the human + body in order to make these causes effective. This work claims that Satan + "attacks lunatics at the full moon, when their brains are full of + humours"; that in other cases of illness he "stirs the black bile"; and + that in cases of blindness and deafness he "clogs the eyes and ears." By + the close of the century this "restatement" was evidently found untenable, + and one of a very different sort was attempted in England. + </p> + <p> + In the third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, published in 1797, + under the article Daemoniacs, the orthodox view was presented in the + following words: "The reality of demoniacal possession stands upon the + same evidence with the gospel system in general." + </p> + <p> + This statement, though necessary to satisfy the older theological + sentiment, was clearly found too dangerous to be sent out into the modern + sceptical world without some qualification. Another view was therefore + suggested, namely, that the personages of the New Testament "adopted the + vulgar language in speaking of those unfortunate persons who were + generally imagined to be possessed with demons." Two or three editions + contained this curious compromise; but near the middle of the present + century the whole discussion was quietly dropped. + </p> + <p> + Science, declining to trouble itself with any of these views, pressed on, + and toward the end of the century we see Dr. Rhodes at Lyons curing a very + serious case of possession by the use of a powerful emetic; yet + myth-making came in here also, and it was stated that when the emetic + produced its effect people had seen multitudes of green and yellow devils + cast forth from the mouth of the possessed. + </p> + <p> + The last great demonstration of the old belief in England was made in + 1788. Near the city of Bristol at that time lived a drunken epileptic, + George Lukins. In asking alms, he insisted that he was "possessed," and + proved it by jumping, screaming, barking, and treating the company to a + parody of the Te Deum. + </p> + <p> + He was solemnly brought into the Temple Church, and seven clergymen united + in the effort to exorcise the evil spirit. Upon their adjuring Satan, he + swore "by his infernal den" that he would not come out of the man—"an + oath," says the chronicler, "nowhere to be found but in Bunyan's Pilgrim's + Progress, from which Lukins probably got it." + </p> + <p> + But the seven clergymen were at last successful, and seven devils were + cast out, after which Lukins retired, and appears to have been supported + during the remainder of his life as a monument of mercy. + </p> + <p> + With this great effort the old theory in England seemed practically + exhausted. + </p> + <p> + Science had evidently carried the stronghold. In 1876, at a little town + near Amiens, in France, a young woman suffering with all the usual + evidences of diabolic possession was brought to the priest. The priest was + besought to cast out the devil, but he simply took her to the hospital, + where, under scientific treatment, she rapidly became better.(409) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (409) See Figuier; also Collin de Plancy, Dictionnaire Infernale, +article Posseses. +</pre> + <p> + The final triumph of science in this part of the great field has been + mainly achieved during the latter half of the present century. + </p> + <p> + Following in the noble succession of Paracelsus and John Hunter and Pinel + and Tuke and Esquirol, have come a band of thinkers and workers who by + scientific observation and research have developed new growths of truth, + ever more and more precious. + </p> + <p> + Among the many facts thus brought to bear upon this last stronghold of the + Prince of Darkness, may be named especially those indicating "expectant + attention"—an expectation of phenomena dwelt upon until the longing + for them becomes morbid and invincible, and the creation of them perhaps + unconscious. Still other classes of phenomena leading to epidemics are + found to arise from a morbid tendency to imitation. Still other groups + have been brought under hypnotism. Multitudes more have been found under + the innumerable forms and results of hysteria. A study of the effects of + the imagination upon bodily functions has also yielded remarkable results. + </p> + <p> + And, finally, to supplement this work, have come in an array of scholars + in history and literature who have investigated myth-making and + wonder-mongering. + </p> + <p> + Thus has been cleared away that cloud of supernaturalism which so long + hung over mental diseases, and thus have they been brought within the firm + grasp of science.(410) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (410) To go into even leading citations in this vast and beneficent +literature would take me far beyond my plan and space, but I may +name, among easily accessible authorities, Brierre de Boismont on +Hallucinations, Hulme's translation, 1860; also James Braid, The Power +of the Mind over the Body, London, 1846; Krafft-Ebing, Lehrbuch der +Psychiatrie, Stuttgart, 1888; Tuke, Influence of the Mind on the Body, +London, 1884; Maudsley, Pathology of the Mind, London, 1879; Carpenter, +Mental Physiology, sixth edition, London, 1888; Lloyd Tuckey, Faith +Cure, in The Nineteenth Century for December, 1888; Pettigrew, +Superstitions connected with the Practice of Medicine and Surgery, +London, 1844; Snell, Hexenprocesse und Geistesstorung, Munchen, +1891. For a very valuable study of interesting cases, see The Law +of Hypnotism, by Prof. R. S. Hyer, of the Southwestern University, +Georgetown, Texas, 1895. +</pre> + <p> + As to myth-making and wonder-mongering, the general reader will find + interesting supplementary accounts in the recent works of Andrew Lang and + Baring-Gould. + </p> + <p> + A very curious evidence of the effects of the myth-making tendency has + recently come to the attention of the writer of this article. + Periodically, for many years past, we have seen, in books of travel and in + the newspapers, accounts of the wonderful performances of the jugglers in + India; of the stabbing of a child in a small basket in the midst of an + arena, and the child appearing alive in the surrounding crowd; of seeds + planted, sprouted, and becoming well-grown trees under the hand of the + juggler; of ropes thrown into the air and sustained by invisible force. + Count de Gubernatis, the eminent professor and Oriental scholar at + Florence, informed the present writer that he had recently seen and + studied these exhibitions, and that, so far from being wonderful, they + were much inferior to the jugglery so well known in all our Western + capitals. + </p> + <p> + Conscientious men still linger on who find comfort in holding fast to some + shred of the old belief in diabolic possession. The sturdy declaration in + the last century by John Wesley, that "giving up witchcraft is giving up + the Bible," is echoed feebly in the latter half of this century by the + eminent Catholic ecclesiastic in France who declares that "to deny + possession by devils is to charge Jesus and his apostles with imposture," + and asks, "How can the testimony of apostles, fathers of the Church, and + saints who saw the possessed and so declared, be denied?" And a still + fainter echo lingers in Protestant England.(411) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (411) See the Abbe Barthelemi, in the Dictionnaire de la Conversation; +also the Rev. W. Scott's Doctrine of Evil Spirits proved, London, 1853; +also the vigorous protest of Dean Burgon against the action of the New +Testament revisers, in substituting the word "epileptic" for "lunatic" +in Matthew xvii, 15, published in the Quarterly Review for January, +1882. +</pre> + <p> + But, despite this conscientious opposition, science has in these latter + days steadily wrought hand in hand with Christian charity in this field, + to evolve a better future for humanity. The thoughtful physician and the + devoted clergyman are now constantly seen working together; and it is not + too much to expect that Satan, having been cast out of the insane asylums, + will ere long disappear from monasteries and camp meetings, even in the + most unenlightened regions of Christendom. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVII. FROM BABEL TO COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY. + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0070" id="link2H_4_0070"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I. THE SACRED THEORY IN ITS FIRST FORM. + </h2> + <p> + Among the sciences which have served as entering wedges into the heavy + mass of ecclesiastical orthodoxy—to cleave it, disintegrate it, and + let the light of Christianity into it—none perhaps has done a more + striking work than Comparative Philology. In one very important respect + the history of this science differs from that of any other; for it is the + only one whose conclusions theologians have at last fully adopted as the + result of their own studies. This adoption teaches a great lesson, since, + while it has destroyed theological views cherished during many centuries, + and obliged the Church to accept theories directly contrary to the plain + letter of our sacred books, the result is clearly seen to have helped + Christianity rather than to have hurt it. It has certainly done much to + clear our religious foundations of the dogmatic rust which was eating into + their structure. + </p> + <p> + How this result was reached, and why the Church has so fully accepted it, + I shall endeavour to show in the present chapter. At a very early period + in the evolution of civilization men began to ask questions regarding + language; and the answers to these questions were naturally embodied in + the myths, legends, and chronicles of their sacred books. + </p> + <p> + Among the foremost of these questions were three: "Whence came language?" + "Which was the first language?" "How came the diversity of language?" + </p> + <p> + The answer to the first of these was very simple: each people naturally + held that language was given it directly or indirectly by some special or + national deity of its own; thus, to the Chaldeans by Oannes, to the + Egyptians by Thoth, to the Hebrews by Jahveh. + </p> + <p> + The Hebrew answer is embodied in the great poem which opens our sacred + books. Jahveh talks with Adam and is perfectly understood; the serpent + talks with Eve and is perfectly understood; Jahveh brings the animals + before Adam, who bestows on each its name. Language, then, was God-given + and complete. Of the fact that every language is the result of a growth + process there was evidently, among the compilers of our sacred books, no + suspicion. + </p> + <p> + The answer to the second of these questions was no less simple. As, very + generally, each nation believed its own chief divinity to be "a god above + all gods,"—as each believed itself "a chosen people,"—as each + believed its own sacred city the actual centre of the earth, so each + believed its own language to be the first—the original of all. This + answer was from the first taken for granted by each "chosen people," and + especially by the Hebrews: throughout their whole history, whether the + Almighty talks with Adam in the Garden or writes the commandments on Mount + Sinai, he uses the same language—the Hebrew. + </p> + <p> + The answer to the third of these questions, that regarding the diversity + of languages, was much more difficult. Naturally, explanations of this + diversity frequently gave rise to legends somewhat complicated. + </p> + <p> + The "law of wills and causes," formulated by Comte, was exemplified here + as in so many other cases. That law is, that, when men do not know the + natural causes of things, they simply attribute them to wills like their + own; thus they obtain a theory which provisionally takes the place of + science, and this theory forms a basis for theology. + </p> + <p> + Examples of this recur to any thinking reader of history. Before the + simpler laws of astronomy were known, the sun was supposed to be trundled + out into the heavens every day and the stars hung up in the firmament + every night by the right hand of the Almighty. Before the laws of comets + were known, they were thought to be missiles hurled by an angry God at a + wicked world. Before the real cause of lightning was known, it was + supposed to be the work of a good God in his wrath, or of evil spirits in + their malice. Before the laws of meteorology were known, it was thought + that rains were caused by the Almighty or his angels opening "the windows + of heaven" to let down upon the earth "the waters that be above the + firmament." Before the laws governing physical health were known, diseases + were supposed to result from the direct interposition of the Almighty or + of Satan. Before the laws governing mental health were known, insanity was + generally thought to be diabolic possession. All these early conceptions + were naturally embodied in the sacred books of the world, and especially + in our own.(412) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (412) Any one who wishes to realize the mediaeval view of the direct +personal attention of the Almighty to the universe, can perhaps do so +most easily by looking over the engravings in the well-known Nuremberg +Chronicle, representing him in the work of each of the six days, and +resting afterward. +</pre> + <p> + So, in this case, to account for the diversity of tongues, the direct + intervention of the Divine Will was brought in. As this diversity was felt + to be an inconvenience, it was attributed to the will of a Divine Being in + anger. To explain this anger, it was held that it must have been provoked + by human sin. + </p> + <p> + Out of this conception explanatory myths and legends grew as thickly and + naturally as elms along water-courses; of these the earliest form known to + us is found in the Chaldean accounts, and nowhere more clearly than in the + legend of the Tower of Babel. + </p> + <p> + The inscriptions recently found among the ruins of Assyria have thrown a + bright light into this and other scriptural myths and legends: the + deciphering of the characters in these inscriptions by Grotefend, and the + reading of the texts by George Smith, Oppert, Sayce, and others, have + given us these traditions more nearly in their original form than they + appear in our own Scriptures. + </p> + <p> + The Hebrew story of Babel, like so many other legends in the sacred books + of the world, combined various elements. By a play upon words, such as the + history of myths and legends frequently shows, it wrought into one fabric + the earlier explanations of the diversities of human speech and of the + great ruined tower at Babylon. The name Babel (bab-el) means "Gate of God" + or "Gate of the Gods." All modern scholars of note agree that this was the + real significance of the name; but the Hebrew verb which signifies TO + CONFOUND resembles somewhat the word Babel, so that out of this + resemblance, by one of the most common processes in myth formation, came + to the Hebrew mind an indisputable proof that the tower was connected with + the confusion of tongues, and this became part of our theological + heritage. + </p> + <p> + In our sacred books the account runs as follows: + </p> + <p> + "And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. + </p> + <p> + "And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a + plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. + </p> + <p> + "And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them + thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. + </p> + <p> + "And they said, Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower, whose top may + reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad + upon the face of the whole earth. + </p> + <p> + "And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children + of men builded. + </p> + <p> + "And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one + language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained + from them, which they have imagined to do. + </p> + <p> + "Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may + not understand one another's speech. + </p> + <p> + "So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the + earth: and they left off to build the city. + </p> + <p> + "Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there + confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord + scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth." (Genesis xi, 1-9.) + </p> + <p> + Thus far the legend had been but slightly changed from the earlier + Chaldean form in which it has been found in the Assyrian inscriptions. Its + character is very simple: to use the words of Prof. Sayce, "It takes us + back to the age when the gods were believed to dwell in the visible sky, + and when man, therefore, did his best to rear his altars as near them as + possible." And this eminent divine might have added that it takes us back + also to a time when it was thought that Jehovah, in order to see the tower + fully, was obliged to come down from his seat above the firmament. + </p> + <p> + As to the real reasons for the building of the towers which formed so + striking a feature in Chaldean architecture—any one of which may + easily have given rise to the explanatory myth which found its way into + our sacred books—there seems a substantial agreement among leading + scholars that they were erected primarily as parts of temples, but largely + for the purpose of astronomical observations, to which the Chaldeans were + so devoted, and to which their country, with its level surface and clear + atmosphere, was so well adapted. As to the real cause of the ruin of such + structures, one of the inscribed cylinders discovered in recent times, + speaking of a tower which most of the archaeologists identify with the + Tower of Babel, reads as follows: + </p> + <p> + "The building named the Stages of the Seven Spheres, which was the Tower + of Borsippa, had been built by a former king. He had completed forty-two + cubits, but he did not finish its head. During the lapse of time, it had + become ruined; they had not taken care of the exit of the waters, so that + rain and wet had penetrated into the brickwork; the casing of burned brick + had swollen out, and the terraces of crude brick are scattered in heaps." + </p> + <p> + We can well understand how easily "the gods, assisted by the winds," as + stated in the Chaldean legend, could overthrow a tower thus built. + </p> + <p> + It may be instructive to compare with the explanatory myth developed first + by the Chaldeans, and in a slightly different form by the Hebrews, various + other legends to explain the same diversity of tongues. The Hindu legend + of the confusion of tongues is as follows: + </p> + <p> + "There grew in the centre of the earth the wonderful 'world tree,' or + 'knowledge tree.' It was so tall that it reached almost to heaven. It said + in its heart, 'I shall hold my head in heaven and spread my branches over + all the earth, and gather all men together under my shadow, and protect + them, and prevent them from separating.' But Brahma, to punish the pride + of the tree, cut off its branches and cast them down on the earth, when + they sprang up as wata trees, and made differences of belief and speech + and customs to prevail on the earth, to disperse men upon its surface." + </p> + <p> + Still more striking is a Mexican legend: according to this, the giant + Xelhua built the great Pyramid of Cholula, in order to reach heaven, until + the gods, angry at his audacity, threw fire upon the building and broke it + down, whereupon every separate family received a language of its own. + </p> + <p> + Such explanatory myths grew or spread widely over the earth. A well-known + form of the legend, more like the Chaldean than the Hebrew later form, + appeared among the Greeks. According to this, the Aloidae piled Mount Ossa + upon Olympus and Pelion upon Ossa, in their efforts to reach heaven and + dethrone Jupiter. + </p> + <p> + Still another form of it entered the thoughts of Plato. He held that in + the golden age men and beasts all spoke the same language, but that Zeus + confounded their speech because men were proud and demanded eternal youth + and immortality.(413) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (413) For the identification of the Tower of Babel with the "Birs +Nimrad" amid the ruins of the city of Borsippa, see Rawlinson; also +Schrader, The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Testament, London, +1885, pp. 106-112 and following; and especially George Smith, Assyrian +Discoveries, p. 59. For some of these inscriptions discovered and read +by George Smith, see his Chaldean Account of Genesis, new York, 1876, +pp. 160-162. For the statement regarding the origin of the word Babel, +see Ersch and Gruber, article Babylon; also the Rev. Prof. A. H. Sayce +in the latest edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica; also Colenso, +Pentateuch Examined, part iv, p. 302; also John Fiske, Myths and +Myth-makers, p. 72; also Lenormont, Histoire Ancienne de l'Orient, +Paris, 1881, vol. i, pp. 115 et seq. As to the character and purpose of +the great tower of the temple of Belus, see Smith's Bible Dictionary, +article Babel, quoting Diodorus; also Rawlinson, especially in Journal +of the Asiatic Society for 1861; also Sayce, Religion of the Ancient +Babylonians (Hibbert Lectures for 1887), London, 1887, chap. ii and +elsewhere, especially pages 96, 397, 407; also Max Duncker, History +of Antiquity, Abbott's translation, vol. ii, chaps. ii, and iii. +For similar legends in other parts of the world, see Delitzsch; also +Humboldt, American Researches; also Brinton, Myths of the New World; +also Colenso, as above. The Tower of Cholula is well known, having +been described by Humboldt and Lord Kingsborough. For superb engravings +showing the view of Babel as developed by the theological imagination, +see Kircher, Turris Babel, Amsterdam, 1679. For the Law of Wills and +Causes, with deductions from it well stated, see Beattie Crozier, +Civilization and Progress, London, 1888, pp. 112, 178, 179, 273. For +Plato, see the Politicus, p. 272, ed. Stephani, cited in Ersch and +Gruber, article Babylon. For a good general statement, see Bible Myths, +New York, 1883, chap. iii. For Aristotle's strange want of interest in +any classification of the varieties of human speech, see Max Muller, +Lectures on the Science of Language, London, 1864, series i, chap. iv, +pp. 123-125. +</pre> + <p> + But naturally the version of the legend which most affected Christendom + was that modification of the Chaldean form developed among the Jews and + embodied in their sacred books. To a thinking man in these days it is very + instructive. The coming down of the Almighty from heaven to see the tower + and put an end to it by dispersing its builders, points to the time when + his dwelling was supposed to be just above the firmament or solid vault + above the earth: the time when he exercised his beneficent activity in + such acts as opening "the windows of heaven" to give down rain upon the + earth; in bringing out the sun every day and hanging up the stars every + night to give light to the earth; in hurling comets, to give warning; in + placing his bow in the cloud, to give hope; in, coming down in the cool of + the evening to walk and talk with the man he had made; in making coats of + skins for Adam and Eve; in enjoying the odour of flesh which Noah burned + for him; in eating with Abraham under the oaks of Mamre; in wrestling with + Jacob; and in writing with his own finger on the stone tables for Moses. + </p> + <p> + So came the answer to the third question regarding language; and all three + answers, embodied in our sacred books and implanted in the Jewish mind, + supplied to the Christian Church the germs of a theological development of + philology. These germs developed rapidly in the warm atmosphere of + devotion and ignorance of natural law which pervaded the early Church, and + there grew a great orthodox theory of language, which was held throughout + Christendom, "always, everywhere, and by all," for nearly two thousand + years, and to which, until the present century, all science has been + obliged, under pains and penalties, to conform. + </p> + <p> + There did, indeed, come into human thought at an early period some + suggestions of the modern scientific view of philology. Lucretius had + proposed a theory, inadequate indeed, but still pointing toward the truth, + as follows: "Nature impelled man to try the various sounds of the tongue, + and so struck out the names of things, much in the same way as the + inability to speak is seen in its turn to drive children to the use of + gestures." But, among the early fathers of the Church, the only one who + seems to have caught an echo of this utterance was St. Gregory of Nyssa: + as a rule, all the other great founders of Christian theology, as far as + they expressed themselves on the subject, took the view that the original + language spoken by the Almighty and given by him to men was Hebrew, and + that from this all other languages were derived at the destruction of the + Tower of Babel. This doctrine was especially upheld by Origen, St. Jerome, + and St. Augustine. Origen taught that "the language given at the first + through Adam, the Hebrew, remained among that portion of mankind which was + assigned not to any angel, but continued the portion of God himself." St. + Augustine declared that, when the other races were divided by their own + peculiar languages, Heber's family preserved that language which is not + unreasonably believed to have been the common language of the race, and + that on this account it was henceforth called Hebrew. St. Jerome wrote, + "The whole of antiquity affirms that Hebrew, in which the Old Testament is + written, was the beginning of all human speech." + </p> + <p> + Amid such great authorities as these even Gregory of Nyssa struggled in + vain. He seems to have taken the matter very earnestly, and to have used + not only argument but ridicule. He insists that God does not speak Hebrew, + and that the tongue used by Moses was not even a pure dialect of one of + the languages resulting from "the confusion." He makes man the inventor of + speech, and resorts to raillery: speaking against his opponent Eunomius, + he says that, "passing in silence his base and abject garrulity," he will + "note a few things which are thrown into the midst of his useless or wordy + discourse, where he represents God teaching words and names to our first + parents, sitting before them like some pedagogue or grammar master." But, + naturally, the great authority of Origen, Jerome, and Augustine prevailed; + the view suggested by Lucretius, and again by St. Gregory of Nyssa, died, + out; and "always, everywhere, and by all," in the Church, the doctrine was + received that the language spoken by the Almighty was Hebrew,—that + it was taught by him to Adam,—and that all other languages on the + face of the earth originated from it at the dispersion attending the + destruction of the Tower of Babel.(414) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (414) For Lucretius's statement, see the De Rerum Natura, lib. v, +Munro's edition, with translation, Cambridge, 1886, vol. iii. p. +141. For the opinion of Gregory of Nyssa, see Benfey, Geschichte der +Sprachwissenschaft in Deutschland, Munchen, 1869, p. 179; and for the +passage cited, see Gregory of Nyssa in his Contra Eunomium, xii, in +Migne's Patr. Graeca, vol. ii, p. 1043. For St. Jerome, see his Epistle +XVIII, in Migne's Patr. Lat., vol. xxii, p. 365. For citation from St. +Augustine, see the City of God, Dod's translation, Edinburgh, 1871, +vol. ii, p. 122. For citation from Origen, see his Homily XI, cited by +Guichard in preface to L'Harmonie Etymologique, Paris, 1631, lib. xvi, +chap. xi. For absolutely convincing proofs that the Jews derived the +Babel and other legends of their sacred books fro the Chaldeans, see +George Smith, Chaldean Account of Genesis, passim; but especially for a +most candid though somewhat reluctant summing up, see p. 291. +</pre> + <p> + This idea threw out roots and branches in every direction, and so + developed ever into new and strong forms. As all scholars now know, the + vowel points in the Hebrew language were not adopted until at some period + between the second and tenth centuries; but in the mediaeval Church they + soon came to be considered as part of the great miracle,—as the work + of the right hand of the Almighty; and never until the eighteenth century + was there any doubt allowed as to the divine origin of these rabbinical + additions to the text. To hesitate in believing that these points were + dotted virtually by the very hand of God himself came to be considered a + fearful heresy. + </p> + <p> + The series of battles between theology and science in the field of + comparative philology opened just on this point, apparently so + insignificant: the direct divine inspiration of the rabbinical + punctuation. The first to impugn this divine origin of these vocal points + and accents appears to have been a Spanish monk, Raymundus Martinus, in + his Pugio Fidei, or Poniard of the Faith, which he put forth in the + thirteenth century. But he and his doctrine disappeared beneath the waves + of the orthodox ocean, and apparently left no trace. For nearly three + hundred years longer the full sacred theory held its ground; but about the + opening of the sixteenth century another glimpse of the truth was given by + a Jew, Elias Levita, and this seems to have had some little effect, at + least in keeping the germ of scientific truth alive. + </p> + <p> + The Reformation, with its renewal of the literal study of the Scriptures, + and its transfer of all infallibility from the Church and the papacy to + the letter of the sacred books, intensified for a time the devotion of + Christendom to this sacred theory of language. The belief was strongly + held that the writers of the Bible were merely pens in the hand of God + (Dei calami.{;?} Hence the conclusion that not only the sense but the + words, letters, and even the punctuation proceeded from the Holy Spirit. + Only on this one question of the origin of the Hebrew points was there any + controversy, and this waxed hot. It began to be especially noted that + these vowel points in the Hebrew Bible did not exist in the synagogue + rolls, were not mentioned in the Talmud, and seemed unknown to St. Jerome; + and on these grounds some earnest men ventured to think them no part of + the original revelation to Adam. Zwingli, so much before most of the + Reformers in other respects, was equally so in this. While not doubting + the divine origin and preservation of the Hebrew language as a whole, he + denied the antiquity of the vocal points, demonstrated their unessential + character, and pointed out the fact that St. Jerome makes no mention of + them. His denial was long the refuge of those who shared this heresy. + </p> + <p> + But the full orthodox theory remained established among the vast majority + both of Catholics and Protestants. The attitude of the former is well + illustrated in the imposing work of the canon Marini, which appeared at + Venice in 1593, under the title of Noah's Ark: A New Treasury of the + Sacred Tongue. The huge folios begin with the declaration that the Hebrew + tongue was "divinely inspired at the very beginning of the world," and the + doctrine is steadily maintained that this divine inspiration extended not + only to the letters but to the punctuation. + </p> + <p> + Not before the seventeenth century was well under way do we find a + thorough scholar bold enough to gainsay this preposterous doctrine. This + new assailant was Capellus, Professor of Hebrew at Saumur; but he dared + not put forth his argument in France: he was obliged to publish it in + Holland, and even there such obstacles were thrown in his way that it was + ten years before he published another treatise of importance. + </p> + <p> + The work of Capellus was received as settling the question by very many + open-minded scholars, among whom was Hugo Grotius. But many theologians + felt this view to be a blow at the sanctity and integrity of the sacred + text; and in 1648 the great scholar, John Buxtorf the younger, rose to + defend the orthodox citadel: in his Anticritica he brought all his stores + of knowledge to uphold the doctrine that the rabbinical points and accents + had been jotted down by the right hand of God. + </p> + <p> + The controversy waxed hot: scholars like Voss and Brian Walton supported + Capellus; Wasmuth and many others of note were as fierce against him. The + Swiss Protestants were especially violent on the orthodox side; their + formula consensus of 1675 declared the vowel points to be inspired, and + three years later the Calvinists of Geneva, by a special canon, forbade + that any minister should be received into their jurisdiction until he + publicly confessed that the Hebrew text, as it to-day exists in the + Masoretic copies, is, both as to the consonants and vowel points, divine + and authentic. + </p> + <p> + While in Holland so great a man as Hugo Grotius supported the view of + Capellus, and while in France the eminent Catholic scholar Richard Simon, + and many others, Catholic and Protestant, took similar ground against this + divine origin of the Hebrew punctuation, there was arrayed against them a + body apparently overwhelming. In France, Bossuet, the greatest theologian + that France has ever produced, did his best to crush Simon. In Germany, + Wasmuth, professor first at Rostock and afterward at Kiel, hurled his + Vindiciae at the innovators. Yet at this very moment the battle was + clearly won; the arguments of Capellus were irrefragable, and, despite the + commands of bishops, the outcries of theologians, and the sneering of + critics, his application of strictly scientific observation and reasoning + carried the day. + </p> + <p> + Yet a casual observer, long after the fate of the battle was really + settled, might have supposed that it was still in doubt. As is not unusual + in theologic controversies, attempts were made to galvanize the dead + doctrine into an appearance of life. Famous among these attempts was that + made as late as the beginning of the eighteenth century by two Bremen + theologians, Hase and Iken. They put forth a compilation in two huge + folios simultaneously at Leyden and Amsterdam, prominent in which work is + the treatise on The Integrity of Scripture, by Johann Andreas Danzius, + Professor of Oriental Languages and Senior Member of the Philosophical + Faculty of Jena, and, to preface it, there was a formal and fulsome + approval by three eminent professors of theology at Leyden. With great + fervour the author pointed out that "religion itself depends absolutely on + the infallible inspiration, both verbal and literal, of the Scripture + text"; and with impassioned eloquence he assailed the blasphemers who + dared question the divine origin of the Hebrew points. But this was really + the last great effort. That the case was lost was seen by the fact that + Danzius felt obliged to use other missiles than arguments, and especially + to call his opponents hard names. From this period the old sacred theory + as to the origin of the Hebrew points may be considered as dead and + buried. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0071" id="link2H_4_0071"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II. THE SACRED THEORY OF LANGUAGE IN ITS SECOND FORM. + </h2> + <p> + But the war was soon to be waged on a wider and far more important field. + The inspiration of the Hebrew punctuation having been given up, the great + orthodox body fell back upon the remainder of the theory, and intrenched + this more strongly than ever: the theory that the Hebrew language was the + first of all languages—that which was spoken by the Almighty, given + by him to Adam, transmitted through Noah to the world after the Deluge—and + that the "confusion of tongues" was the origin of all other languages. + </p> + <p> + In giving account of this new phase of the struggle, it is well to go back + a little. From the Revival of Learning and the Reformation had come the + renewed study of Hebrew in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and thus + the sacred doctrine regarding the origin of the Hebrew language received + additional authority. All the early Hebrew grammars, from that of Reuchlin + down, assert the divine origin and miraculous claims of Hebrew. It is + constantly mentioned as "the sacred tongue"—sancta lingua. In 1506, + Reuchlin, though himself persecuted by a large faction in the Church for + advanced views, refers to Hebrew as "spoken by the mouth of God." + </p> + <p> + This idea was popularized by the edition of the Margarita Philosophica, + published at Strasburg in 1508. That work, in its successive editions a + mirror of human knowledge at the close of the Middle Ages and the opening + of modern times, contains a curious introduction to the study of Hebrew, + In this it is declared that Hebrew was the original speech "used between + God and man and between men and angels." Its full-page frontispiece + represents Moses receiving from God the tables of stone written in Hebrew; + and, as a conclusive argument, it reminds us that Christ himself, by + choosing a Hebrew maid for his mother, made that his mother tongue. + </p> + <p> + It must be noted here, however, that Luther, in one of those outbursts of + strong sense which so often appear in his career, enforced the explanation + that the words "God said" had nothing to do with the articulation of human + language. Still, he evidently yielded to the general view. In the Roman + Church at the same period we have a typical example of the theologic + method applied to philology, as we have seen it applied to other sciences, + in the statement by Luther's great opponent, Cajetan, that the three + languages of the inscription on the cross of Calvary "were the + representatives of all languages, because the number three denotes + perfection." + </p> + <p> + In 1538 Postillus made a very important endeavour at a comparative study + of languages, but with the orthodox assumption that all were derived from + one source, namely, the Hebrew. Naturally, Comparative Philology blundered + and stumbled along this path into endless absurdities. The most amazing + efforts were made to trace back everything to the sacred language. English + and Latin dictionaries appeared, in which every word was traced back to a + Hebrew root. No supposition was too absurd in this attempt to square + Science with Scripture. It was declared that, as Hebrew is written from + right to left, it might be read either way, in order to produce a + satisfactory etymology. The whole effort in all this sacred scholarship + was, not to find what the truth is—not to see how the various + languages are to be classified, or from what source they are really + derived—but to demonstrate what was supposed necessary to maintain + what was then held to be the truth of Scripture; namely, that all + languages are derived from the Hebrew. + </p> + <p> + This stumbling and blundering, under the sway of orthodox necessity, was + seen among the foremost scholars throughout Europe. About the middle of + the sixteenth century the great Swiss scholar, Conrad Gesner, beginning + his Mithridates, says, "While of all languages Hebrew is the first and + oldest, of all is alone pure and unmixed, all the rest are much mixed, for + there is none which has not some words derived and corrupted from Hebrew." + </p> + <p> + Typical, as we approach the end of the sixteenth century, are the + utterances of two of the most noted English divines. First of these may be + mentioned Dr. William Fulke, Master of Pembroke Hall, in the University of + Cambridge. In his Discovery of the Dangerous Rock of the Romish Church, + published in 1580, he speaks of "the Hebrew tongue,... the first tongue of + the world, and for the excellency thereof called 'the holy tongue.'" + </p> + <p> + Yet more emphatic, eight years later, was another eminent divine, Dr. + William Whitaker, Regius Professor of Divinity and Master of St. John's + College at Cambridge. In his Disputation on Holy Scripture, first printed + in 1588, he says: "The Hebrew is the most ancient of all languages, and + was that which alone prevailed in the world before the Deluge and the + erection of the Tower of Babel. For it was this which Adam used and all + men before the Flood, as is manifest from the Scriptures, as the fathers + testify." He then proceeds to quote passages on this subject from St. + Jerome, St. Augustine, and others, and cites St. Chrysostom in support of + the statement that "God himself showed the model and method of writing + when he delivered the Law written by his own finger to Moses."(415) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (415) For the whole scriptural argument, embracing the various texts on +which the sacred science of Philology was founded, with the use made +of such texts, see Benfey, Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft in +Deutschland, Munchen, 1869, pp. 22-26. As to the origin of the vowel +points, see Benfey, as above; he holds that they began to be inserted +in the second century A.D., and that the process lasted until about the +tenth. For Raymundus and his Pugio Fidei, see G. L. Bauer, Prolegomena +to his revision of Glassius's Philologia Sacra, Leipsic, 1795,—see +especially pp. 8-14, in tome ii of the work. For Zwingli, see Praef. in +Apol. comp. Isaiae (Opera, iii). See also Morinus, De Lingua primaeva, +p.447. For Marini, see his Arca Noe: Thesaurus Linguae Sanctae, Venet., +1593, and especially the preface. For general account of Capellus, +see G. L. Bauer, in his Prolegomena, as above, vol. ii, pp. 8-14. His +Arcanum Premetationis Revelatum was brought out at Leyden in 1624; his +Critica Sacra ten years later. See on Capellus and Swiss theologues, +Wolfius, Bibliotheca Nebr., tome ii, p. 27. For the struggle, see +Schnedermann, Die Controverse des Ludovicus Capellus mit den Buxtorfen, +Leipsic, 1879, cited in article Hebrew, in Encyclopaedia Britannica. For +Wasmuth, see his Vindiciae Sanctae Hebraicae Scripturae, Rostock, 1664. +For Reuchlin, see the dedicatory preface to his Rudimenta Hebraica, +Pforzheim, 1506, folio, in which he speaks of the "in divina scriptura +dicendi genus, quale os Dei locatum est." The statement in the Margarita +Philosophica as to Hebrew is doubtless based on Reuchlin's Rudimenta +Hebraica, which it quotes, and which first appeared in 1506. It is +significant that this section disappeared from the Margarita in the +following editions; but this disappearence is easily understood when we +recall the fact that Gregory Reysch, its author, having become one +of the Papal Commission to judge Reuchlin in his quarrel with the +Dominicans, thought it prudent to side with the latter, and therefore, +doubtless, considered it wise to suppress all evidence of Reuchlin's +influence upon his beliefs. All the other editions of the Margarita in +my possession are content with teaching, under the head of the Alphabet, +that the Hebrew letters were invented by Adam. On Luther's view of +the words "God said," see Farrar, Language and Languages. For a most +valuable statement regarding the clashing opinions at the Reformation, +see Max Muller, as above, lecture iv, p. 132. For the prevailing view +among the Reformers, see Calovius, vol. i, p. 484, and Thulock, The +Doctrine of Inspiration, in Theolog. Essays, Boston, 1867. Both Muller +and Benfey note, as especially important, the difference between the +Church view and the ancient heathen view regarding "barbarians." See +Muller, as above, lecture iv, p. 127, and Benfey, as above, pp. 170 et +seq. For a very remarkable list of Bibles printed at an early period, +see Benfey, p. 569. On the attempts to trace all words back to Hebrew +roots, see Sayce, Introduction to the Science of Language, chap. vi. For +Gesner, see his Mithridates (de differentiis linguarum), Zurich, 1555. +For a similar attempt to prove that Italian was also derived from +Hebrew, see Giambullari, cited in Garlanda, p. 174. For Fulke, see +the Parker Society's Publications, 1848, p. 224. For Whitaker, see his +Disputation on Holy Scripture in the same series, pp. 112-114. +</pre> + <p> + This sacred theory entered the seventeenth century in full force, and for + a time swept everything before it. Eminent commentators, Catholic and + Protestant, accepted and developed it. + </p> + <p> + Great prelates, Catholic and Protestant, stood guard over it, favouring + those who supported it, doing their best to destroy those who would modify + it. + </p> + <p> + In 1606 Stephen Guichard built new buttresses for it in Catholic France. + He explains in his preface that his intention is "to make the reader see + in the Hebrew word not only the Greek and Latin, but also the Italian, the + Spanish, the French, the German, the Flemish, the English, and many others + from all languages." As the merest tyro in philology can now see, the + great difficulty that Guichard encounters is in getting from the Hebrew to + the Aryan group of languages. How he meets this difficulty may be imagined + from his statement, as follows: "As for the derivation of words by + addition, subtraction, and inversion of the letters, it is certain that + this can and ought thus to be done, if we would find etymologies—a + thing which becomes very credible when we consider that the Hebrews wrote + from right to left and the Greeks and others from left to right. All the + learned recognise such derivations as necessary;... and... certainly + otherwise one could scarcely trace any etymology back to Hebrew." + </p> + <p> + Of course, by this method of philological juggling, anything could be + proved which the author thought necessary to his pious purpose. + </p> + <p> + Two years later, Andrew Willett published at London his Hexapla, or + Sixfold Commentary upon Genesis. In this he insists that the one language + of all mankind in the beginning "was the Hebrew tongue preserved still in + Heber's family." He also takes pains to say that the Tower of Babel "was + not so called of Belus, as some have imagined, but of confusion, for so + the Hebrew word ballal signifieth"; and he quotes from St. Chrysostom to + strengthen his position. + </p> + <p> + In 1627 Dr. Constantine l'Empereur was inducted into the chair of + Philosophy of the Sacred Language in the University of Leyden. In his + inaugural oration on The Dignity and Utility of the Hebrew Tongue, he puts + himself on record in favour of the Divine origin and miraculous purity of + that language. "Who," he says, "can call in question the fact that the + Hebrew idiom is coeval with the world itself, save such as seek to win + vainglory for their own sophistry?" + </p> + <p> + Two years after Willett, in England, comes the famous Dr. Lightfoot, the + most renowned scholar of his time in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin; but all his + scholarship was bent to suit theological requirements. In his Erubhin, + published in 1629, he goes to the full length of the sacred theory, though + we begin to see a curious endeavour to get over some linguistic + difficulties. + </p> + <p> + One passage will serve to show both the robustness of his faith and the + acuteness of his reasoning, in view of the difficulties which scholars now + began to find in the sacred theory." Other commendations this tongue + (Hebrew) needeth none than what it hath of itself; namely, for sanctity it + was the tongue of God; and for antiquity it was the tongue of Adam. God + the first founder, and Adam the first speaker of it.... It began with the + world and the Church, and continued and increased in glory till the + captivity in Babylon.... As the man in Seneca, that through sickness lost + his memory and forgot his own name, so the Jews, for their sins, lost + their language and forgot their own tongue.... Before the confusion of + tongues all the world spoke their tongue and no other but since the + confusion of the Jews they speak the language of all the world and not + their own." + </p> + <p> + But just at the middle of the century (1657) came in England a champion of + the sacred theory more important than any of these—Brian Walton, + Bishop of Chester. His Polyglot Bible dominated English scriptural + criticism throughout the remainder of the century. He prefaces his great + work by proving at length the divine origin of Hebrew, and the derivation + from it of all other forms of speech. He declares it "probable that the + first parent of mankind was the inventor of letters." His chapters on this + subject are full of interesting details. He says that the Welshman, Davis, + had already tried to prove the Welsh the primitive speech; Wormius, the + Danish; Mitilerius, the German; but the bishop stands firmly by the sacred + theory, informing us that "even in the New World are found traces of the + Hebrew tongue, namely, in New England and in New Belgium, where the word + Aguarda signifies earth, and the name Joseph is found among the Hurons." + As we have seen, Bishop Walton had been forced to give up the inspiration + of the rabbinical punctuation, but he seems to have fallen back with all + the more tenacity on what remained of the great sacred theory of language, + and to have become its leading champion among English-speaking peoples. + </p> + <p> + At that same period the same doctrine was put forth by a great authority + in Germany. In 1657 Andreas Sennert published his inaugural address as + Professor of Sacred Letters and Dean of the Theological Faculty at + Wittenberg. All his efforts were given to making Luther's old university a + fortress of the orthodox theory. His address, like many others in various + parts of Europe, shows that in his time an inaugural with any save an + orthodox statement of the theological platform would not be tolerated. Few + things in the past are to the sentimental mind more pathetic, to the + philosophical mind more natural, and to the progressive mind more + ludicrous, than addresses at high festivals of theological schools. The + audience has generally consisted mainly of estimable elderly gentlemen, + who received their theology in their youth, and who in their old age have + watched over it with jealous care to keep it well protected from every + fresh breeze of thought. Naturally, a theological professor inaugurated + under such auspices endeavours to propitiate his audience. Sennert goes to + great lengths both in his address and in his grammar, published nine years + later; for, declaring the Divine origin of Hebrew to be quite beyond + controversy, he says: "Noah received it from our first parents, and + guarded it in the midst of the waters; Heber and Peleg saved it from the + confusion of tongues." + </p> + <p> + The same doctrine was no less loudly insisted upon by the greatest + authority in Switzerland, Buxtorf, professor at Basle, who proclaimed + Hebrew to be "the tongue of God, the tongue of angels, the tongue of the + prophets"; and the effect of this proclamation may be imagined when we + note in 1663 that his book had reached its sixth edition. + </p> + <p> + It was re-echoed through England, Germany, France, and America, and, if + possible, yet more highly developed. In England Theophilus Gale set + himself to prove that not only all the languages, but all the learning of + the world, had been drawn from the Hebrew records. + </p> + <p> + This orthodox doctrine was also fully vindicated in Holland. Six years + before the close of the seventeenth century, Morinus, Doctor of Theology, + Professor of Oriental Languages, and pastor at Amsterdam, published his + great work on Primaeval Language. Its frontispiece depicts the confusion + of tongues at Babel, and, as a pendant to this, the pentecostal gift of + tongues to the apostles. In the successive chapters of the first book he + proves that language could not have come into existence save as a direct + gift from heaven; that there is a primitive language, the mother of all + the rest; that this primitive language still exists in its pristine + purity; that this language is the Hebrew. The second book is devoted to + proving that the Hebrew letters were divinely received, have been + preserved intact, and are the source of all other alphabets. But in the + third book he feels obliged to allow, in the face of the contrary dogma + held, as he says, by "not a few most eminent men piously solicitous for + the authority of the sacred text," that the Hebrew punctuation was, after + all, not of Divine inspiration, but a late invention of the rabbis. + </p> + <p> + France, also, was held to all appearance in complete subjection to the + orthodox idea up to the end of the century. In 1697 appeared at Paris + perhaps the most learned of all the books written to prove Hebrew the + original tongue and source of all others. The Gallican Church was then at + the height of its power. Bossuet as bishop, as thinker, and as adviser of + Louis XIV, had crushed all opposition to orthodoxy. The Edict of Nantes + had been revoked, and the Huguenots, so far as they could escape, were + scattered throughout the world, destined to repay France with interest a + thousandfold during the next two centuries. The bones of the Jansenists at + Port Royal were dug up and scattered. Louis XIV stood guard over the piety + of his people. It was in the midst of this series of triumphs that Father + Louis Thomassin, Priest of the Oratory, issued his Universal Hebrew + Glossary. In this, to use his own language, "the divinity, antiquity, and + perpetuity of the Hebrew tongue, with its letters, accents, and other + characters," are established forever and beyond all cavil, by proofs drawn + from all peoples, kindreds, and nations under the sun. This superb, + thousand-columned folio was issued from the royal press, and is one of the + most imposing monuments of human piety and folly—taking rank with + the treatises of Fromundus against Galileo, of Quaresmius on Lot's Wife, + and of Gladstone on Genesis and Geology. + </p> + <p> + The great theologic-philologic chorus was steadily maintained, and, as in + a responsive chant, its doctrines were echoed from land to land. From + America there came the earnest words of John Eliot, praising Hebrew as the + most fit to be made a universal language, and declaring it the tongue + "which it pleased our Lord Jesus to make use of when he spake from heaven + unto Paul." At the close of the seventeenth century came from England a + strong antiphonal answer in this chorus; Meric Casaubon, the learned + Prebendary of Canterbury, thus declared: "One language, the Hebrew, I hold + to be simply and absolutely the source of all." And, to swell the chorus, + there came into it, in complete unison, the voice of Bentley—the + greatest scholar of the old sort whom England has ever produced. He was, + indeed, one of the most learned and acute critics of any age; but he was + also Master of Trinity, Archdeacon of Bristol, held two livings besides, + and enjoyed the honour of refusing the bishopric of Bristol, as not rich + enough to tempt him. Noblesse oblige: that Bentley should hold a brief for + the theological side was inevitable, and we need not be surprised when we + hear him declaring: "We are sure, from the names of persons and places + mentioned in Scripture before the Deluge, not to insist upon other + arguments, that the Hebrew was the primitive language of mankind, and that + it continued pure above three thousand years until the captivity in + Babylon." The power of the theologic bias, when properly stimulated with + ecclesiastical preferment, could hardly be more perfectly exemplified than + in such a captivity of such a man as Bentley. + </p> + <p> + Yet here two important exceptions should be noted. In England, Prideaux, + whose biblical studies gave him much authority, opposed the dominant + opinion; and in America, Cotton Mather, who in taking his Master's degree + at Harvard had supported the doctrine that the Hebrew vowel points were of + divine origin, bravely recanted and declared for the better view.(416) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (416) The quotation from Guichard is from L'Harmonie Etymologique des +Langues,... dans laquelle par plusiers Antiquites et Etymologies +de toute sorte, je demonstre evidemment que toutes les langues sont +descendues de l'Hebraique; par M. Estienne Guichard, Paris, 1631. The +first edition appeared in 1606. For Willett, see his Hexapla, London, +1608, pp. 125-128. For the Address of L'Empereur, see his publication, +Leyden, 1627. The quotation from Lightfoot, beginning "Other +commendations," etc., is taken from his Erubhin, or Miscellanies, +edition of 1629; see also his works, vol. iv, pp. 46, 47, London, 1822. +For Bishop Brian Walton, see the Cambridge edition of his works, 1828, +Prolegomena S 1 and 3. As to Walton's giving up the rabbinical points, +he mentions in one of the latest editions of his works the fact that +Isaac Casabon, Joseph Scaliger, Isaac Vossius, Grotius, Beza, Luther, +Zwingli, Brentz, Oecolampadius, Calvin, and even some of the Popes were +with him in this. For Sennert, see his Dissertation de Ebraicae S. S. +Linguae Origine, etc., Wittenberg, 1657; also his Grammitica Orientalis, +Wittenberg, 1666. For Buxtorf, see the preface to his Thesaurus +Grammaticus Linguae Sanctae Hebraeae, sixth edition, 1663. For Gale, +see his Court of the Gentiles, Oxford, 1672. For Morinus, see his +Exercitationes de Lingua Primaeva, Utrecht, 1697. For Thomassin, see +his Glossarium Universale Hebraicum, Paris, 1697. For John Eliot's +utterance, see Mather's Magnalia, book iii, p. 184. For Meric Casaubon, +see his De Lingua Anglia Vet., p. 160, cited by Massey, p. 16 of Origin +and Progress of Letters. For Bentley, see his works, London, 1836, vol. +ii, p. 11, and citations by Welsford, Mithridates Minor, p. 2. As to +Bentley's position as a scholar, see the famous estimate in Macaulay's +Essays. For a short but very interesting account of him, see Mark +Pattison's article in vol. iii of the last edition of the Encyclopaedia +Britannica. The postion of Pattison as an agnostic dignitary in the +English Church eminently fitted him to understand Bentley's career, both +as regards the orthodox and the scholastic world. For perhaps the +most striking account of the manner in which Bentley lorded it in the +scholastic world of his time, see Monk's Life of Bentley, vol. ii, chap. +xvii, and especially his contemptuous reply to the judges, as given in +vol. ii, pp. 211, 212. For Cotton Mather, see his biography by Samuel +Mather, Boston, 1729, pp. 5, 6. +</pre> + <p> + But even this dissent produced little immediate effect, and at the + beginning of the eighteenth century this sacred doctrine, based upon + explicit statements of Scripture, seemed forever settled. As we have seen, + strong fortresses had been built for it in every Christian land: nothing + seemed more unlikely than that the little groups of scholars scattered + through these various countries could ever prevail against them. These + strongholds were built so firmly, and had behind them so vast an army of + religionists of every creed, that to conquer them seemed impossible. And + yet at that very moment their doom was decreed. Within a few years from + this period of their greatest triumph, the garrisons of all these sacred + fortresses were in hopeless confusion, and the armies behind them in full + retreat; a little later, all the important orthodox fortresses and forces + were in the hands of the scientific philologists. + </p> + <p> + How this came about will be shown in the third part of this chapter. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0072" id="link2H_4_0072"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III. BREAKING DOWN OF THE THEOLOGICAL VIEW. + </h2> + <p> + We have now seen the steps by which the sacred theory of human language + had been developed: how it had been strengthened in every land until it + seemed to bid defiance forever to advancing thought; how it rested firmly + upon the letter of Scripture, upon the explicit declarations of leading + fathers of the Church, of the great doctors of the Middle Ages, of the + most eminent theological scholars down to the beginning of the eighteenth + century, and was guarded by the decrees of popes, kings, bishops, Catholic + and Protestant, and the whole hierarchy of authorities in church and + state. + </p> + <p> + And yet, as we now look back, it is easy to see that even in that hour of + its triumph it was doomed. + </p> + <p> + The reason why the Church has so fully accepted the conclusions of science + which have destroyed the sacred theory is instructive. The study of + languages has been, since the Revival of Learning and the Reformation, a + favourite study with the whole Western Church, Catholic and Protestant. + The importance of understanding the ancient tongues in which our sacred + books are preserved first stimulated the study, and Church missionary + efforts have contributed nobly to supply the material for extending it, + and for the application of that comparative method which, in philology as + in other sciences, has been so fruitful. Hence it is that so many leading + theologians have come to know at first hand the truths given by this + science, and to recognise its fundamental principles. What the conclusions + which they, as well as all other scholars in this field, have been + absolutely forced to accept, I shall now endeavour to show. + </p> + <p> + The beginnings of a scientific theory seemed weak indeed, but they were + none the less effective. As far back as 1661, Hottinger, professor at + Heidelberg, came into the chorus of theologians like a great bell in a + chime; but like a bell whose opening tone is harmonious and whose closing + tone is discordant. For while, at the beginning, Hottinger cites a + formidable list of great scholars who had held the sacred theory of the + origin of language, he goes on to note a closer resemblance to the Hebrew + in some languages than in others, and explains this by declaring that the + confusion of tongues was of two sorts, total and partial: the Arabic and + Chaldaic he thinks underwent only a partial confusion; the Egyptian, + Persian, and all the European languages a total one. Here comes in the + discord; here gently sounds forth from the great chorus a new note—that + idea of grouping and classifying languages which at a later day was to + destroy utterly the whole sacred theory. + </p> + <p> + But the great chorus resounded on, as we have seen, from shore to shore, + until the closing years of the seventeenth century; then arose men who + silenced it forever. The first leader who threw the weight of his + knowledge, thought, and authority against it was Leibnitz. He declared, + "There is as much reason for supposing Hebrew to have been the primitive + language of mankind as there is for adopting the view of Goropius, who + published a work at Antwerp in 1580 to prove that Dutch was the language + spoken in paradise." + </p> + <p> + In a letter to Tenzel, Leibnitz wrote, "To call Hebrew the primitive + language is like calling the branches of a tree primitive branches, or + like imagining that in some country hewn trunks could grow instead of + trees." He also asked, "If the primeval language existed even up to the + time of Moses, whence came the Egyptian language?" + </p> + <p> + But the efficiency of Leibnitz did not end with mere suggestions. He + applied the inductive method to linguistic study, made great efforts to + have vocabularies collected and grammars drawn up wherever missionaries + and travellers came in contact with new races, and thus succeeded in + giving the initial impulse to at least three notable collections—that + of Catharine the Great, of Russia; that of the Spanish Jesuit, Lorenzo + Hervas; and, at a later period, the Mithridates of Adelung. The interest + of the Empress Catharine in her collection of linguistic materials was + very strong, and her influence is seen in the fact that Washington, to + please her, requested governors and generals to send in materials from + various parts of the United States and the Territories. The work of Hervas + extended over the period from 1735 to 1809: a missionary in America, he + enlarged his catalogue of languages to six volumes, which were published + in Spanish in 1800, and contained specimens of more than three hundred + languages, with the grammars of more than forty. It should be said to his + credit that Hervas dared point out with especial care the limits of the + Semitic family of languages, and declared, as a result of his enormous + studies, that the various languages of mankind could not have been derived + from the Hebrew. + </p> + <p> + While such work was done in Catholic Spain, Protestant Germany was + honoured by the work of Adelung. It contained the Lord's Prayer in nearly + five hundred languages and dialects, and the comparison of these, early in + the nineteenth century, helped to end the sway of theological philology. + </p> + <p> + But the period which intervened between Leibnitz and this modern + development was a period of philological chaos. It began mainly with the + doubts which Leibnitz had forced upon Europe, and ended only with the + beginning of the study of Sanskrit in the latter half of the eighteenth + century, and with the comparisons made by means of the collections of + Catharine, Hervas, and Adelung at the beginning of the nineteenth. The old + theory that Hebrew was the original language had gone to pieces; but + nothing had taken its place as a finality. Great authorities, like + Buddeus, were still cited in behalf of the narrower belief; but everywhere + researches, unorganized though they were, tended to destroy it. The story + of Babel continued indeed throughout the whole eighteenth century to + hinder or warp scientific investigation, and a very curious illustration + of this fact is seen in the book of Lord Nelme on The Origin and Elements + of Language. He declares that connected with the confusion was the + cleaving of America from Europe, and he regards the most terrible chapters + in the book of Job as intended for a description of the Flood, which in + all probability Job had from Noah himself. Again, Rowland Jones tried to + prove that Celtic was the primitive tongue, and that it passed through + Babel unharmed. Still another effect was made by a Breton to prove that + all languages took their rise in the language of Brittany. All was chaos. + There was much wrangling, but little earnest controversy. Here and there + theologians were calling out frantically, beseeching the Church to save + the old doctrine as "essential to the truth of Scripture"; here and there + other divines began to foreshadow the inevitable compromise which has + always been thus vainly attempted in the history of every science. But it + was soon seen by thinking men that no concessions as yet spoken of by + theologians were sufficient. In the latter half of the century came the + bloom period of the French philosophers and encyclopedists, of the English + deists, of such German thinkers as Herder, Kant, and Lessing; and while + here and there some writer on the theological side, like Perrin, amused + thinking men by his flounderings in this great chaos, all remained without + form and void.(417) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (417) For Hottinger, see the preface to his Etymologicum Orientale, +Frankfort, 1661. For Leibnitz, Catharine the Great, Hervas, and Adelung, +see Max Muller, as above, from whom I have quoted very fully; see also +Benfey, Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft, etc., p. 269. Benfey declares +that the Catalogue of Hervas is even now a mine for the philologist. For +the first two citations from Leibnitz, as well as for a statement of his +importance in the history of languages, see Max Muller, as above, pp. +135, 136. For the third quotation, Leibnitz, Opera, Geneva, 1768, vi, +part ii, p. 232. For Nelme, see his Origin and Elements of Language, +London, 1772, pp. 85-100. For Rowland Jones, see The Origin of Language +and Nations, London, 1764, and preface. For the origin of languages in +Brittany, see Le Brigant, Paris, 1787. For Herder and Lessing, see Canon +Farrar's treatise; on Lessing, see Sayce, as above. As to Perrin, see +his essay Sur l'Origine et l'Antiquite des Langues, London, 1767. +</pre> + <p> + Nothing better reveals to us the darkness and duration of this chaos in + England than a comparison of the articles on Philology given in the + successive editions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. The first edition of + that great mirror of British thought was printed in 1771: chaos reigns + through the whole of its article on this subject. The writer divides + languages into two classes, seems to indicate a mixture of divine + inspiration with human invention, and finally escapes under a cloud. In + the second edition, published in 1780, some progress has been made. The + author states the sacred theory, and declares: "There are some divines who + pretend that Hebrew was the language in which God talked with Adam in + paradise, and that the saints will make use of it in heaven in those + praises which they will eternally offer to the Almighty. These doctors + seem to be as certain in regard to what is past as to what is to come." + </p> + <p> + This was evidently considered dangerous. It clearly outran the belief of + the average British Philistine; and accordingly we find in the third + edition, published seventeen years later, a new article, in which, while + the author gives, as he says, "the best arguments on both sides," he takes + pains to adhere to a fairly orthodox theory. + </p> + <p> + This soothing dose was repeated in the fourth and fifth editions. In 1824 + appeared a supplement to the fourth, fifth, and sixth editions, which + dealt with the facts so far as they were known; but there was scarcely a + reference to the biblical theory throughout the article. Three years later + came another supplement. While this chaos was fast becoming cosmos in + Germany, such a change had evidently not gone far in England, for from + this edition of the Encyclopaedia the subject of philology was omitted. In + fact, Babel and Philology made nearly as much trouble to encyclopedists as + Noah's Deluge and Geology. Just as in the latter case they had been + obliged to stave off a presentation of scientific truth, by the words "For + Deluge, see Flood" and "For Flood, see Noah," so in the former they were + obliged to take various provisional measures, some of them comical. In + 1842 came the seventh edition. In this the first part of the old article + on Philology which had appeared in the third, fourth, and fifth editions + was printed, but the supernatural part was mainly cut out. Yet we find a + curious evidence of the continued reign of chaos in a foot-note inserted + by the publishers, disavowing any departure from orthodox views. In 1859 + appeared the eighth edition. This abandoned the old article completely, + and in its place gave a history of philology free from admixture of + scriptural doctrines. + </p> + <p> + Finally, in the year 1885, appeared the ninth edition, in which Professors + Whitney of Yale and Sievers of Tubingen give admirably and in fair compass + what is known of philology, making short work of the sacred theory—in + fact, throwing it overboard entirely. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0073" id="link2H_4_0073"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IV. TRIUMPH OF THE NEW SCIENCE. + </h2> + <p> + Such was that chaos of thought into which the discovery of Sanskrit + suddenly threw its great light. Well does one of the foremost modern + philologists say that this "was the electric spark which caused the + floating elements to crystallize into regular forms." Among the first to + bring the knowledge of Sanskrit to Europe were the Jesuit missionaries, + whose services to the material basis of the science of comparative + philology had already been so great; and the importance of the new + discovery was soon seen among all scholars, whether orthodox or + scientific. In 1784 the Asiatic Society at Calcutta was founded, and with + it began Sanskrit philology. Scholars like Sir William Jones, Carey, + Wilkins, Foster, Colebrooke, did noble work in the new field. A new spirit + brooded over that chaos, and a great new orb of science was evolved. + </p> + <p> + The little group of scholars who gave themselves up to these researches, + though almost without exception reverent Christians, were recognised at + once by theologians as mortal foes of the whole sacred theory of language. + Not only was the dogma of the multiplication of languages at the Tower of + Babel swept out of sight by the new discovery, but the still more vital + dogma of the divine origin of language, never before endangered, was felt + to be in peril, since the evidence became overwhelming that so many + varieties had been produced by a process of natural growth. + </p> + <p> + Heroic efforts were therefore made, in the supposed interest of Scripture, + to discredit the new learning. Even such a man as Dugald Stewart declared + that the discovery of Sanskrit was altogether fraudulent, and endeavoured + to prove that the Brahmans had made it up from the vocabulary and grammar + of Greek and Latin. Others exercised their ingenuity in picking the new + discovery to pieces, and still others attributed it all to the + machinations of Satan. + </p> + <p> + On the other hand, the more thoughtful men in the Church endeavoured to + save something from the wreck of the old system by a compromise. They + attempted to prove that Hebrew is at least a cognate tongue with the + original speech of mankind, if not the original speech itself; but here + they were confronted by the authority they dreaded most—the great + Christian scholar, Sir William Jones himself. His words were: "I can only + declare my belief that the language of Noah is irretrievably lost. After + diligent search I can not find a single word used in common by the + Arabian, Indian, and Tartar families, before the intermixture of dialects + occasioned by the Mohammedan conquests." + </p> + <p> + So, too, in Germany came full acknowledgment of the new truth, and from a + Roman Catholic, Frederick Schlegel. He accepted the discoveries in the old + language and literature of India as final: he saw the significance of + these discoveries as regards philology, and grouped the languages of + India, Persia, Greece, Italy, and Germany under the name afterward so + universally accepted—Indo-Germanic. + </p> + <p> + It now began to be felt more and more, even among the most devoted + churchmen, that the old theological dogmas regarding the origin of + language, as held "always, everywhere, and by all," were wrong, and that + Lucretius and sturdy old Gregory of Nyssa might be right. + </p> + <p> + But this was not the only wreck. During ages the great men in the Church + had been calling upon the world to admire the amazing exploit of Adam in + naming the animals which Jehovah had brought before him, and to accept the + history of language in the light of this exploit. The early fathers, the + mediaeval doctors, the great divines of the Reformation period, Catholic + and Protestant, had united in this universal chorus. Clement of Alexandria + declared Adam's naming of the animals proof of a prophetic gift. St. John + Chrysostom insisted that it was an evidence of consummate intelligence. + Eusebius held that the phrase "That was the name thereof" implied that + each name embodied the real character and description of the animal + concerned. + </p> + <p> + This view was echoed by a multitude of divines in the seventeenth and + eighteenth centuries. Typical among these was the great Dr. South, who, in + his sermon on The State of Man before the Fall, declared that "Adam came + into the world a philosopher, which sufficiently appears by his writing + the nature of things upon their names." + </p> + <p> + In the chorus of modern English divines there appeared one of eminence who + declared against this theory: Dr. Shuckford, chaplain in ordinary to his + Majesty George II, in the preface to his work on The Creation and Fall of + Man, pronounced the whole theory "romantic and irrational." He goes on to + say: "The original of our speaking was from God; not that God put into + Adam's mouth the very sounds which he designed he should use as the names + of things; but God made Adam with the powers of a man; he had the use of + an understanding to form notions in his mind of the things about him, and + he had the power to utter sounds which should be to himself the names of + things according as he might think fit to call them." + </p> + <p> + This echo of Gregory of Nyssa was for many years of little avail. + Historians of philosophy still began with Adam, because only a philosopher + could have named all created things. There was, indeed, one difficulty + which had much troubled some theologians: this was, that fishes were not + specially mentioned among the animals brought by Jehovah before Adam for + naming. To meet this difficulty there was much argument, and some + theologians laid stress on the difficulty of bringing fishes from the sea + to the Garden of Eden to receive their names; but naturally other + theologians replied that the almighty power which created the fishes could + have easily brought them into the garden, one by one, even from the + uttermost parts of the sea. This point, therefore, seems to have been left + in abeyance.(418) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (418) For the danger of "the little system of the history of the world," +see Sayce, as above. On Dugald Stewart's contention, see Max Muller, +Lectures on Language, pp. 167, 168. For Sir William Jones, see his +Works, London, 1807, vol. i, p. 199. For Schlegel, see Max Muller, as +above. For an enormous list of great theologians, from the fathers down, +who dwelt on the divine inspiration and wonderful gifts of Adam on this +subject, see Canon Farrar, Language and Languages. The citation from +Clement of Alexandria is Strom.. i, p. 335. See also Chrysostom, Hom. +XIV in Genesin; also Eusebius, Praep. Evang. XI, p. 6. For the two +quotations given above from Shuckford, see The Creation and Fall of Man, +London, 1763, preface, p. lxxxiii; also his Sacred and Profane History +of the World, 1753; revised edition by Wheeler, London, 1858. For the +argument regarding the difficulty of bringing the fishes to be named +into the Garden of Eden, see Massey, Origin and Progress of Letters, +London, 1763, pp. 14-19. +</pre> + <p> + It had continued, then, the universal belief in the Church that the names + of all created things, except possibly fishes, were given by Adam and in + Hebrew; but all this theory was whelmed in ruin when it was found that + there were other and indeed earlier names for the same animals than those + in the Hebrew language; and especially was this enforced on thinking men + when the Egyptian discoveries began to reveal the pictures of animals with + their names in hieroglyphics at a period earlier than that agreed on by + all the sacred chronologists as the date of the Creation. + </p> + <p> + Still another part of the sacred theory now received its death-blow. + Closely allied with the question of the origin of language was that of the + origin of letters. The earlier writers had held that letters were also a + divine gift to Adam; but as we go on in the eighteenth century we find + theological opinion inclining to the belief that this gift was reserved + for Moses. This, as we have seen, was the view of St. John Chrysostom; and + an eminent English divine early in the eighteenth century, John Johnson, + Vicar of Kent, echoed it in the declaration concerning the alphabet, that + "Moses first learned it from God by means of the lettering on the tables + of the law." But here a difficulty arose—the biblical statement that + God commanded Moses to "write in a book" his decree concerning Amalek + before he went up into Sinai. With this the good vicar grapples manfully. + He supposes that God had previously concealed the tables of stone in Mount + Horeb, and that Moses, "when he kept Jethro's sheep thereabout, had free + access to these tables, and perused them at discretion, though he was not + permitted to carry them down with him." Our reconciler then asks for what + other reason could God have kept Moses up in the mountain forty days at a + time, except to teach him to write; and says, "It seems highly probable + that the angel gave him the alphabet of the Hebrew, or in some other way + unknown to us became his guide." + </p> + <p> + But this theory of letters was soon to be doomed like the other parts of + the sacred theory. Studies in Comparative Philology, based upon researches + in India, began to be reenforced by facts regarding the inscriptions in + Egypt, the cuneiform inscriptions of Assyria, the legends of Chaldea, and + the folklore of China—where it was found in the sacred books that + the animals were named by Fohi, and with such wisdom and insight that + every name disclosed the nature of the corresponding animal. + </p> + <p> + But, although the old theory was doomed, heroic efforts were still made to + support it. In 1788 James Beattie, in all the glory of his Oxford + doctorate and royal pension, made a vigorous onslaught, declaring the new + system of philology to be "degrading to our nature," and that the theory + of the natural development of language is simply due to the beauty of + Lucretius' poetry. But his main weapon was ridicule, and in this he showed + himself a master. He tells the world, "The following paraphrase has + nothing of the elegance of Horace or Lucretius, but seems to have all the + elegance that so ridiculous a doctrine deserves": + </p> + <p> + "When men out of the earth of old A dumb and beastly vermin crawled; For + acorns, first, and holes of shelter, They tooth and nail, and helter + skelter, Fought fist to fist; then with a club Each learned his brother + brute to drub; Till, more experienced grown, these cattle Forged fit + accoutrements for battle. At last (Lucretius says and Creech) They set + their wits to work on SPEECH: And that their thoughts might all have marks + To make them known, these learned clerks Left off the trade of cracking + crowns, And manufactured verbs and nouns." + </p> + <p> + But a far more powerful theologian entered the field in England to save + the sacred theory of language—Dr. Adam Clarke. He was no less severe + against Philology than against Geology. In 1804, as President of the + Manchester Philological Society, he delivered an address in which he + declared that, while men of all sects were eligible to membership, "he who + rejects the establishment of what we believe to be a divine revelation, he + who would disturb the peace of the quiet, and by doubtful disputations + unhinge the minds of the simple and unreflecting, and endeavour to turn + the unwary out of the way of peace and rational subordination, can have no + seat among the members of this institution." The first sentence in this + declaration gives food for reflection, for it is the same confusion of two + ideas which has been at the root of so much interference of theology with + science for the last two thousand years. Adam Clarke speaks of those "who + reject the establishment of what, WE BELIEVE, to be a divine revelation." + Thus comes in that customary begging of the question—the + substitution, as the real significance of Scripture, of "WHAT WE BELIEVE" + for what IS. + </p> + <p> + The intended result, too, of this ecclesiastical sentence was simple + enough. It was, that great men like Sir William Jones, Colebrooke, and + their compeers, must not be heard in the Manchester Philological Society + in discussion with Dr. Adam Clarke on questions regarding Sanskrit and + other matters regarding which they knew all that was then known, and Dr. + Clarke knew nothing. + </p> + <p> + But even Clarke was forced to yield to the scientific current. Thirty + years later, in his Commentary on the Old Testament, he pitched the claims + of the sacred theory on a much lower key. He says: "Mankind was of one + language, in all likelihood the Hebrew.... The proper names and other + significations given in the Scripture seem incontestable evidence that the + Hebrew language was the original language of the earth,—the language + in which God spoke to man, and in which he gave the revelation of his will + to Moses and the prophets." Here are signs that this great champion is + growing weaker in the faith: in the citations made it will be observed he + no longer says "IS," but "SEEMS"; and finally we have him saying, "What + the first language was is almost useless to inquire, as it is impossible + to arrive at any satisfactory information on this point." + </p> + <p> + In France, during the first half of the nineteenth century, yet more heavy + artillery was wheeled into place, in order to make a last desperate + defence of the sacred theory. The leaders in this effort were the three + great Ultramontanes, De Maistre, De Bonald, and Lamennais. Condillac's + contention that "languages were gradually and insensibly acquired, and + that every man had his share of the general result," they attacked with + reasoning based upon premises drawn from the book of Genesis. De Maistre + especially excelled in ridiculing the philosophic or scientific theory. + Lamennais, who afterward became so vexatious a thorn in the side of the + Church, insisted, at this earlier period, that "man can no more think + without words than see without light." And then, by that sort of mystical + play upon words so well known in the higher ranges of theologic reasoning, + he clinches his argument by saying, "The Word is truly and in every sense + 'the light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.'" + </p> + <p> + But even such champions as these could not stay the progress of thought. + While they seemed to be carrying everything before them in France, + researches in philology made at such centres of thought as the Sorbonne + and the College of France were undermining their last great fortress. + Curious indeed is it to find that the Sorbonne, the stronghold of theology + through so many centuries, was now made in the nineteenth century the + arsenal and stronghold of the new ideas. But the most striking result of + the new tendency in France was seen when the greatest of the three + champions, Lamennais himself, though offered the highest Church + preferment, and even a cardinal's hat, braved the papal anathema, and went + over to the scientific side.(419) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (419) For Johnson's work, showing how Moses learned the alphabet, see +the Collection of Discourses by Rev. John Johnson, A. M., Vicar of Kent, +London, 1728, p. 42, and the preface. For Beattie, see his Theory of +Language, London, 1788, p. 98; also pp. 100, 101. For Adam Clarke, see, +for the speech cited, his Miscellaneous Works, London, 1837; for the +passage from his Commentary, see the London edition of 1836, vol. i, +p. 93; for the other passage, see Introduction to Bibliographical +Miscellany, quoted in article, Origin of Language and Alphabetical +Characters, in Methodist Magazine, vol. xv, p. 214. For De Bonald, +see his Recherches Philosophiques, part iii, chap. ii, De l'Origine du +Language, in his Oeuvres, Bruxelles, 1852, vol. i, Les Soirees de Saint +Petersbourg, deuxieme entretien, passim. For Lamennais, see his Oeuvres +Completes, Paris, 1836-'37, tome ii, pp.78-81, chap. xv of Essai sur +l'Indifference en Matiere de Religion. +</pre> + <p> + In Germany philological science took so strong a hold that its positions + were soon recognised as impregnable. Leaders like the Schlegels, Wilhelm + von Humboldt, and above all Franz Bopp and Jacob Grimm, gave such + additional force to scientific truth that it could no longer be withstood. + To say nothing of other conquests, the demonstration of that great law in + philology which bears Grimm's name brought home to all thinking men the + evidence that the evolution of language had not been determined by the + philosophic utterances of Adam in naming the animals which Jehovah brought + before him, but in obedience to natural law. + </p> + <p> + True, a few devoted theologians showed themselves willing to lead a + forlorn hope; and perhaps the most forlorn of all was that of 1840, led by + Dr. Gottlieb Christian Kayser, Professor of Theology at the Protestant + University of Erlangen. He does not, indeed, dare put in the old claim + that Hebrew is identical with the primitive tongue, but he insists that it + is nearer it than any other. He relinquishes the two former theological + strongholds—first, the idea that language was taught by the Almighty + to Adam, and, next, that the alphabet was thus taught to Moses—and + falls back on the position that all tongues are thus derived from Noah, + giving as an example the language of the Caribbees, and insisting that it + was evidently so derived. What chance similarity in words between Hebrew + and the Caribbee tongue he had in mind is past finding out. He comes out + strongly in defence of the biblical account of the Tower of Babel, and + insists that "by the symbolical expression 'God said, Let us go down,' a + further natural phenomenon is intimated, to wit, the cleaving of the + earth, whereby the return of the dispersed became impossible—that is + to say, through a new or not universal flood, a partial inundation and + temporary violent separation of great continents until the time of the + rediscovery" By these words the learned doctor means nothing less than the + separation of Europe from America. + </p> + <p> + While at the middle of the nineteenth century the theory of the origin and + development of language was upon the continent considered as settled, and + a well-ordered science had there emerged from the old chaos, Great Britain + still held back, in spite of the fact that the most important contributors + to the science were of British origin. Leaders in every English church and + sect vied with each other, either in denouncing the encroachments of the + science of language or in explaining them away. + </p> + <p> + But a new epoch had come, and in a way least expected. Perhaps the most + notable effort in bringing it in was made by Dr. Wiseman, afterward + Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster. His is one of the best examples of a + method which has been used with considerable effect during the latest + stages of nearly all the controversies between theology and science. It + consists in stating, with much fairness, the conclusions of the scientific + authorities, and then in persuading one's self and trying to persuade + others that the Church has always accepted them and accepts them now as + "additional proofs of the truth of Scripture." A little juggling with + words, a little amalgamation of texts, a little judicious suppression, a + little imaginative deduction, a little unctuous phrasing, and the thing is + done. One great service this eminent and kindly Catholic champion + undoubtedly rendered: by this acknowledgment, so widely spread in his + published lectures, he made it impossible for Catholics or Protestants + longer to resist the main conclusions of science. Henceforward we only + have efforts to save theological appearances, and these only by men whose + zeal outran their discretion. + </p> + <p> + On both sides of the Atlantic, down to a recent period, we see these + efforts, but we see no less clearly that they are mutually destructive. + Yet out of this chaos among English-speaking peoples the new science began + to develop steadily and rapidly. Attempts did indeed continue here and + there to save the old theory. Even as late as 1859 we hear the eminent + Presbyterian divine, Dr. John Cumming, from his pulpit in London, speaking + of Hebrew as "that magnificent tongue—that mother-tongue, from which + all others are but distant and debilitated progenies." + </p> + <p> + But the honour of producing in the nineteenth century the most absurd + known attempt to prove Hebrew the primitive tongue belongs to the youngest + of the continents, Australia. In the year 1857 was printed at Melbourne + The Triumph of Truth, or a Popular Lecture on the Origin of Languages, by + B. Atkinson, M.R.C.P.L.—whatever that may mean. In this work, + starting with the assertion that "the Hebrew was the primary stock whence + all languages were derived," the author states that Sanskrit is "a dialect + of the Hebrew," and declares that "the manuscripts found with mummies + agree precisely with the Chinese version of the Psalms of David." It all + sounds like Alice in Wonderland. Curiously enough, in the latter part of + his book, evidently thinking that his views would not give him authority + among fastidious philologists, he says, "A great deal of our consent to + the foregoing statements arises in our belief in the Divine inspiration of + the Mosaic account of the creation of the world and of our first parents + in the Garden of Eden." A yet more interesting light is thrown upon the + author's view of truth, and of its promulgation, by his dedication: he + says that, "being persuaded that literary men ought to be fostered by the + hand of power," he dedicates his treatise "to his Excellency Sir H. + Barkly," who was at the time Governor of Victoria. + </p> + <p> + Still another curious survival is seen in a work which appeared as late as + 1885, at Edinburgh, by William Galloway, M.A., Ph.D., M.D. The author + thinks that he has produced abundant evidence to prove that "Jehovah, the + Second Person of the Godhead, wrote the first chapter of Genesis on a + stone pillar, and that this is the manner by which he first revealed it to + Adam; and thus Adam was taught not only to speak but to read and write by + Jehovah, the Divine Son; and that the first lesson he got was from the + first chapter of Genesis." He goes on to say: "Jehovah wrote these first + two documents; the first containing the history of the Creation, and the + second the revelation of man's redemption,... for Adam's and Eve's + instruction; it is evident that he wrote them in the Hebrew tongue, + because that was the language of Adam and Eve." But this was only a flower + out of season. + </p> + <p> + And, finally, in these latter days Mr. Gladstone has touched the subject. + With that well-known facility in believing anything he wishes to believe, + which he once showed in connecting Neptune's trident with the doctrine of + the Trinity, he floats airily over all the impossibilities of the original + Babel legend and all the conquests of science, makes an assertion + regarding the results of philology which no philologist of any standing + would admit, and then escapes in a cloud of rhetoric after his well-known + fashion. + </p> + <p> + This, too, must be set down simply as a survival, for in the British Isles + as elsewhere the truth has been established. Such men as Max Muller and + Sayce in England,—Steinthal, Schleicher, Weber, Karl Abel, and a + host of others in Germany,—Ascoli and De Gubernatis in Italy,—and + Whitney, with the scholars inspired by him, in America, have carried the + new science to a complete triumph. The sons of Yale University may well be + proud of the fact that this old Puritan foundation was made the + headquarters of the American Oriental Society, which has done so much for + the truth in this field.(420) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (420) For Mr. Gladstone's view, see his Impregnable Rock of Holy +Scripture, London, 1890, pp. 241 et seq. The passage connecting the +trident of Neptune with the Trinity is in his Juventus Mundi. To any +American boy who sees how inevitably, both among Indian and white +fishermen, the fish spear takes the three-pronged form, this utterance +of Mr. Gladstone is amazing. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0074" id="link2H_4_0074"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + V. SUMMARY. + </h2> + <p> + It may be instructive, in conclusion, to sum up briefly the history of the + whole struggle. + </p> + <p> + First, as to the origin of speech, we have in the beginning the whole + Church rallying around the idea that the original language was Hebrew; + that this language, even including the medieval rabbinical punctuation, + was directly inspired by the Almighty; that Adam was taught it by God + himself in walks and talks; and that all other languages were derived from + it at the "confusion of Babel." + </p> + <p> + Next, we see parts of this theory fading out: the inspiration of the + rabbinical points begins to disappear. Adam, instead of being taught + directly by God, is "inspired" by him. + </p> + <p> + Then comes the third stage: advanced theologians endeavour to compromise + on the idea that Adam was "given verbal roots and a mental power." + </p> + <p> + Finally, in our time, we have them accepting the theory that language is + the result of an evolutionary process in obedience to laws more or less + clearly ascertained. Babel thus takes its place quietly among the sacred + myths. + </p> + <p> + As to the origin of writing, we have the more eminent theologians at first + insisting that God taught Adam to write; next we find them gradually + retreating from this position, but insisting that writing was taught to + the world by Noah. After the retreat from this position, we find them + insisting that it was Moses whom God taught to write. But scientific modes + of thought still progressed, and we next have influential theologians + agreeing that writing was a Mosaic invention; this is followed by another + theological retreat to the position that writing was a post-Mosaic + invention. Finally, all the positions are relinquished, save by some few + skirmishers who appear now and then upon the horizon, making attempts to + defend some subtle method of "reconciling" the Babel myth with modern + science. + </p> + <p> + Just after the middle of the nineteenth century the last stage of + theological defence was evidently reached—the same which is seen in + the history of almost every science after it has successfully fought its + way through the theological period—the declaration which we have + already seen foreshadowed by Wiseman, that the scientific discoveries in + question are nothing new, but have really always been known and held by + the Church, and that they simply substantiate the position taken by the + Church. This new contention, which always betokens the last gasp of + theological resistance to science, was now echoed from land to land. In + 1856 it was given forth by a divine of the Anglican Church, Archdeacon + Pratt, of Calcutta. He gives a long list of eminent philologists who had + done most to destroy the old supernatural view of language, reads into + their utterances his own wishes, and then exclaims, "So singularly do + their labours confirm the literal truth of Scripture." + </p> + <p> + Two years later this contention was echoed from the American Presbyterian + Church, and Dr. B. W. Dwight, having stigmatized as "infidels" those who + had not incorporated into their science the literal acceptance of Hebrew + legend, declared that "chronology, ethnography, and etymology have all + been tortured in vain to make them contradict the Mosaic account of the + early history of man." Twelve years later this was re-echoed from England. + The Rev. Dr. Baylee, Principal of the College of St. Aidan's, declared, + "With regard to the varieties of human language, the account of the + confusion of tongues is receiving daily confirmation by all the recent + discoveries in comparative philology." So, too, in the same year (1870), + in the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, Dr. John Eadie, Professor + of Biblical Literature and Exegesis, declared, "Comparative philology has + established the miracle of Babel." + </p> + <p> + A skill in theology and casuistry so exquisite as to contrive such + assertions, and a faith so robust as to accept them, certainly leave + nothing to be desired. But how baseless these contentions are is shown, + first, by the simple history of the attitude of the Church toward this + question; and, secondly, by the fact that comparative philology now + reveals beyond a doubt that not only is Hebrew not the original or oldest + language upon earth, but that it is not even the oldest form in the + Semitic group to which it belongs. To use the words of one of the most + eminent modern authorities, "It is now generally recognised that in + grammatical structure the Arabic preserves much more of the original forms + than either the Hebrew or Aramaic." + </p> + <p> + History, ethnology, and philology now combine inexorably to place the + account of the confusion of tongues and the dispersion of races at Babel + among the myths; but their work has not been merely destructive: more and + more strong are the grounds for belief in an evolution of language. + </p> + <p> + A very complete acceptance of the scientific doctrines has been made by + Archdeacon Farrar, Canon of Westminster. With a boldness which in an + earlier period might have cost him dear, and which merits praise even now + for its courage, he says: "For all reasoners except that portion of the + clergy who in all ages have been found among the bitterest enemies of + scientific discovery, these considerations have been conclusive. But, + strange to say, here, as in so many other instances, this self-styled + orthodoxy—more orthodox than the Bible itself—directly + contradicts the very Scriptures which it professes to explain, and by + sheer misrepresentation succeeds in producing a needless and deplorable + collision between the statements of Scripture and those other mighty and + certain truths which have been revealed to science and humanity as their + glory and reward." + </p> + <p> + Still another acknowledgment was made in America through the + instrumentality of a divine of the Methodist Episcopal Church, whom the + present generation at least will hold in honour not only for his + scholarship but for his patriotism in the darkest hour of his country's + need—John McClintock. In the article on Language, in the Biblical + Cyclopaedia, edited by him and the Rev. Dr. Strong, which appeared in + 1873, the whole sacred theory is given up, and the scientific view + accepted.(421) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (421) For Kayser, see his work, Ueber die Ursprache, oder uber eine +Behauptung Mosis, dass alle Sprachen der Welt von einer einzigen der +Noahhischen abstammen, Erlangen, 1840; see especially pp. 5, 80, 95, +112. For Wiseman, see his Lectures on the Connection between Science and +Revealed Religion, London, 1836. For examples typical of very many in +this field, see the works of Pratt, 1856; Dwight, 1858; Jamieson, 1868. +For citation from Cumming, see his Great Tribulation, London, 1859, p. +4; see also his Things Hard to be Understood, London, 1861, p. 48. For +an admirable summary of the work of the great modern philologists, and +a most careful estimate of the conclusions reached, see Prof. Whitney's +article on Philology in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. A copy of Mr. +Atkinson's book is in the Harvard College Library, it having been +presented by the Trustees of the Public Library of Victoria. For +Galloway, see his Philosophy of the Creation, Edinburgh and London, +1885, pp. 21, 238, 239, 446. For citation from Baylee, see his Verbal +Inspiration the True Characteristic of God's Holy Word, London, 1870, +p. 14 and elsewhere. For Archdeacon Pratt, see his Scripture and Science +not at Variance, London, 1856, p. 55. For the citation from Dr. Eadie, +see his Biblical Cyclopaedia, London, 1870, p. 53. For Dr. Dwight, +see The New-Englander, vol. xvi, p. 465. For the theological article +referred to as giving up the sacred theory, see the Cyclopaedia of +Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, prepared by Rev. +John McClintock, D. D., and James Strong, New York, 1873, vol. v, p. +233. For Arabic as an earlier Semitic development than Hebrew, as well +as for much other valuable information on the questions recently +raised, see article Hebrew, by W. R. Smith, in the latest edition of +the Encyclopaedia Britannica. For quotation from Canon Farrar, see his +language and Languages, London, 1878, pp. 6,7. +</pre> + <p> + It may, indeed, be now fairly said that the thinking leaders of theology + have come to accept the conclusions of science regarding the origin of + language, as against the old explanations by myth and legend. The result + has been a blessing both to science and to religion. No harm has been done + to religion; what has been done is to release it from the clog of theories + which thinking men saw could no longer be maintained. No matter what has + become of the naming of the animals by Adam, of the origin of the name + Babel, of the fear of the Almighty lest men might climb up into his realm + above the firmament, and of the confusion of tongues and the dispersion of + nations; the essentials of Christianity, as taught by its blessed Founder, + have simply been freed, by Comparative Philology, from one more great + incubus, and have therefore been left to work with more power upon the + hearts and minds of mankind. + </p> + <p> + Nor has any harm been done to the Bible. On the contrary, this divine + revelation through science has made it all the more precious to us. In + these myths and legends caught from earlier civilizations we see an + evolution of the most important religious and moral truths for our race. + Myth, legend, and parable seem, in obedience to a divine law, the + necessary setting for these truths, as they are successively evolved, ever + in higher and higher forms. What matters it, then, that we have come to + know that the accounts of Creation, the Fall, the Deluge, and much else in + our sacred books, were remembrances of lore obtained from the Chaldeans? + What matters it that the beautiful story of Joseph is found to be in part + derived from an Egyptian romance, of which the hieroglyphs may still be + seen? What matters it that the story of David and Goliath is poetry; and + that Samson, like so many men of strength in other religions, is probably + a sun-myth? What matters it that the inculcation of high duty in the + childhood of the world is embodied in such quaint stories as those of + Jonah and Balaam? The more we realize these facts, the richer becomes that + great body of literature brought together within the covers of the Bible. + What matters it that those who incorporated the Creation lore of Babylonia + and other Oriental nations into the sacred books of the Hebrews, mixed it + with their own conceptions and deductions? What matters it that Darwin + changed the whole aspect of our Creation myths; that Lyell and his + compeers placed the Hebrew story of Creation and of the Deluge of Noah + among legends; that Copernicus put an end to the standing still of the sun + for Joshua; that Halley, in promulgating his law of comets, put an end to + the doctrine of "signs and wonders"; that Pinel, in showing that all + insanity is physical disease, relegated to the realm of mythology the + witch of Endor and all stories of demoniacal possession; that the Rev. Dr. + Schaff, and a multitude of recent Christian travellers in Palestine, have + put into the realm of legend the story of Lot's wife transformed into a + pillar of salt; that the anthropologists, by showing how man has risen + everywhere from low and brutal beginnings, have destroyed the whole + theological theory of "the fall of man"? Our great body of sacred + literature is thereby only made more and more valuable to us: more and + more we see how long and patiently the forces in the universe which make + for righteousness have been acting in and upon mankind through the only + agencies fitted for such work in the earliest ages of the world—through + myth, legend, parable, and poem. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVIII. FROM THE DEAD SEA LEGENDS TO COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY, + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0076" id="link2H_4_0076"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I. THE GROWTH OF EXPLANATORY TRANSFORMATION MYTHS. + </h2> + <p> + A few years since, Maxime Du Camp, an eminent member of the French + Academy, travelling from the Red Sea to the Nile through the Desert of + Kosseir, came to a barren slope covered with boulders, rounded and glossy. + </p> + <p> + His Mohammedan camel-driver accounted for them on this wise: + </p> + <p> + "Many years ago Hadji Abdul-Aziz, a sheik of the dervishes, was travelling + on foot through this desert: it was summer: the sun was hot and the dust + stifling; thirst parched his lips, fatigue weighed down his back, sweat + dropped from his forehead, when looking up he saw—on this very spot—a + garden beautifully green, full of fruit, and, in the midst of it, the + gardener. + </p> + <p> + "'O fellow-man,' cried Hadji Abdul-Aziz, 'in the name of Allah, clement + and merciful, give me a melon and I will give you my prayers.'" + </p> + <p> + The gardener answered: 'I care not for your prayers; give me money, and I + will give you fruit.' + </p> + <p> + "'But,' said the dervish, 'I am a beggar; I have never had money; I am + thirsty and weary, and one of your melons is all that I need.' + </p> + <p> + "'No,' said the gardener; 'go to the Nile and quench your thirst.' + </p> + <p> + "Thereupon the dervish, lifting his eyes toward heaven, made this prayer: + 'O Allah, thou who in the midst of the desert didst make the fountain of + Zem-Zem spring forth to satisfy the thirst of Ismail, father of the + faithful: wilt thou suffer one of thy creatures to perish thus of thirst + and fatigue? ' + </p> + <p> + "And it came to pass that, hardly had the dervish spoken, when an abundant + dew descended upon him, quenching his thirst and refreshing him even to + the marrow of his bones. + </p> + <p> + "Now at the sight of this miracle the gardener knew that the dervish was a + holy man, beloved of Allah, and straightway offered him a melon. + </p> + <p> + "'Not so,' answered Hadji Abdul-Aziz; 'keep what thou hast, thou wicked + man. May thy melons become as hard as thy heart, and thy field as barren + as thy soul!' + </p> + <p> + "And straightway it came to pass that the melons were changed into these + blocks of stone, and the grass into this sand, and never since has + anything grown thereon." + </p> + <p> + In this story, and in myriads like it, we have a survival of that early + conception of the universe in which so many of the leading moral and + religious truths of the great sacred books of the world are imbedded. + </p> + <p> + All ancient sacred lore abounds in such mythical explanations of + remarkable appearances in nature, and these are most frequently prompted + by mountains, rocks, and boulders seemingly misplaced. + </p> + <p> + In India we have such typical examples among the Brahmans as the + mountain-peak which Durgu threw at Parvati; and among the Buddhists the + stone which Devadatti hurled at Buddha. + </p> + <p> + In Greece the Athenian, rejoicing in his belief that Athena guarded her + chosen people, found it hard to understand why the great rock Lycabettus + should be just too far from the Acropolis to be of use as an outwork; but + a myth was developed which explained all. According to this, Athena had + intended to make Lycabettus a defence for the Athenians, and she was + bringing it through the air from Pallene for that very purpose; but, + unfortunately, a raven met her and informed her of the wonderful birth of + Erichthonius, which so surprised the goddess that she dropped the rock + where it now stands. + </p> + <p> + So, too, a peculiar rock at Aegina was accounted for by a long and + circumstantial legend to the effect that Peleus threw it at Phocas. + </p> + <p> + A similar mode of explaining such objects is seen in the mythologies of + northern Europe. In Scandinavia we constantly find rocks which tradition + accounts for by declaring that they were hurled by the old gods at each + other, or at the early Christian churches. + </p> + <p> + In Teutonic lands, as a rule, wherever a strange rock or stone is found, + there will be found a myth or a legend, heathen or Christian, to account + for it. + </p> + <p> + So, too, in Celtic countries: typical of this mode of thought in Brittany + and in Ireland is the popular belief that such features in the landscape + were dropped by the devil or by fairies. + </p> + <p> + Even at a much later period such myths have grown and bloomed. Marco Polo + gives a long and circumstantial legend of a mountain in Asia Minor which, + not long before his visit, was removed by a Christian who, having "faith + as a grain of mustard seed," and remembering the Saviour's promise, + transferred the mountain to its present place by prayer, "at which marvel + many Saracens became Christians."(422) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (422) For Maxime Du Camp, see Le Nil: Egypte et Nubie, Paris, 1877, +chapter v. For India, see Duncker, Geschichte des Alterthums, vol. iii, +p. 366; also Coleman, Mythology of the Hindus, p. 90. For Greece, as to +the Lycabettus myth, see Leake, Topography of Athens, vol. i, sec. 3; +also Burnouf, La Legende Athenienne, p. 152. For the rock at Aegina, +see Charton, vol. i, p. 310. For Scandanavia, see Thorpe, Northern +Antiquities, passim. For Teutonic countries, see Grimm, Deutsche +Mythologie; Panzer, Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie, vol. ii; Zingerle, +Sagen aus Tyrol, pp. 111 et seq., 488, 504, 543; and especially J. B. +Friedrich, Symbolik und Mythologie der Natur, pp. 116 et seq. For Celtic +examples I am indebted to that learned and genial scholar, Prof. J. +P. Mahaffy, of Trinity College, Dublin. See also story of the devil +dropping a rock when forced by the archangel Michael to aid him in +building Mont Saint-Michel on the west coast of France, in Sebillot's +Traditions de la Haute Bretagne, vol. i, p. 22; also multitudes of other +examples in the same work. For Marco Polo, see in Grynaeus, p. 337; also +Charton, Voyageurs anciens et modernes, tome ii, pp. 274 et seq., where +the legend is given in full. +</pre> + <p> + Similar mythical explanations are also found, in all the older religions + of the world, for curiously marked meteoric stones, fossils, and the like. + </p> + <p> + Typical examples are found in the imprint of Buddha's feet on stones in + Siam and Ceylon; in the imprint of the body of Moses, which down to the + middle of the last century was shown near Mount Sinai; in the imprint of + Poseidon's trident on the Acropolis at Athens; in the imprint of the hands + or feet of Christ on stones in France, Italy, and Palestine; in the + imprint of the Virgin's tears on stones at Jerusalem; in the imprint of + the feet of Abraham at Jerusalem and of Mohammed on a stone in the Mosque + of Khait Bey at Cairo; in the imprint of the fingers of giants on stones + in the Scandinavian Peninsula, in north Germany, and in western France; in + the imprint of the devil's thighs on a rock in Brittany, and of his claws + on stones which he threw at churches in Cologne and Saint-Pol-de-Leon; in + the imprint of the shoulder of the devil's grand mother on the + "elbow-stone" at the Mohriner see; in the imprint of St. Otho's feet on a + stone formerly preserved in the castle church at Stettin; in the imprint + of the little finger of Christ and the head of Satan at Ehrenberg; and in + the imprint of the feet of St. Agatha at Catania, in Sicily. To account + for these appearances and myriads of others, long and interesting legends + were developed, and out of this mass we may take one or two as typical. + </p> + <p> + One of the most beautiful was evolved at Rome. On the border of the + medieval city stands the church of "Domine quo vadis"; it was erected in + honour of a stone, which is still preserved, bearing a mark resembling a + human footprint—perhaps the bed of a fossil. + </p> + <p> + Out of this a pious legend grew as naturally as a wild rose in a prairie. + According to this story, in one of the first great persecutions the heart + of St. Peter failed him, and he attempted to flee from the city: arriving + outside the walls he was suddenly confronted by the Master, whereupon + Peter in amazement asked, "Lord, whither goest thou?" (Domine quo vadis?); + to which the Master answered, "To Rome, to be crucified again." The + apostle, thus rebuked, returned to martyrdom; the Master vanished, but + left, as a perpetual memorial, his footprint in the solid rock. + </p> + <p> + Another legend accounts for a curious mark in a stone at Jerusalem. + According to this, St. Thomas, after the ascension of the Lord, was again + troubled with doubts, whereupon the Virgin Mother threw down her girdle, + which left its imprint upon the rock, and thus converted the doubter fully + and finally. + </p> + <p> + And still another example is seen at the very opposite extreme of Europe, + in the legend of the priestess of Hertha in the island of Rugen. She had + been unfaithful to her vows, and the gods furnished a proof of her guilt + by causing her and her child to sink into the rock on which she + stood.(423) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (423) For myths and legend crystallizing about boulders and other stones +curiously shaped or marked, see, on the general subject, in addition to +works already cited, Des Brosses, Les Dieux Fetiches, 1760, passim, but +especially pages 166, 167; and for a condensed statement as to worship +paid them, see Gerard de Rialle, Mythologie comparee, vol. vi, chapter +ii. For imprints of Buddha's feet, see Tylor, Researches into the Early +History of Mankind, London, 1878, pp. 115 et seq.; also Coleman, p. 203, +and Charton, Voyageurs anciens et modernes, tome i, pp. 365, 366, where +engravings of one of the imprints, and of the temple above another, are +seen. There are five which are considered authentic by the Siamese, +and a multitude of others more or less strongly insisted upon. For the +imprint os Moses' body, see travellers from Sir John Mandeville down. +For the mark of Neptune's trident, see last edition of Murray's Handbook +of Greece, vol. i, p. 322; and Burnouf, La Legende Athenienne, p. 153. +For imprint of the feet of Christ, and of the Virgin's girdle and tears, +see many of the older travellers in Palestine, as Arculf, Bouchard, +Roger, and especially Bertrandon de la Brocquiere in Wright's +collection, pp. 339, 340; also Maundrell's Travels, and Mandeville. For +the curious legend regarding the imprint of Abraham's foot, see Weil, +Biblische Legenden der Muselmanner, pp. 91 et seq. For many additional +examples in Palestine, particularly the imprints of the bodies of three +apostles on stones in the Garden of Gethsemane and of St. Jerome's body +in the desert, see Beauvau, Relation du Voyage du Lavant, Nancy, 1615, +passim. For the various imprints made by Satan and giants in Scandanavia +and Germany, see Thorpe, vol. ii, p. 85; Friedrichs, pp. 126 and passim. +For a very rich collection of such explanatory legends regarding stones +and marks in Germany, see Karl Bartsch, Sagen, Marchen und Gebrauche +aus Meklenburg, Wien, 1880, vol. ii, pp. 420 et seq. For a woodcut +representing the imprint of Christ's feet on the stone from which he +ascended to heaven, see woodcut in Mandeville, edition of 1484, in the +White Library, Cornell University. For the legend of Domine quo vadis, +see many books of travel and nearly all guide books for Rome, from +the mediaeval Mirabilia Romae to the latest edition of Murray. The +footprints of Mohammed at Cairo were shown to the present writer in +1889. On the general subject, with many striking examples, see Falsan, +La Periode glaciaire, Paris, 1889, pp. 17, 294, 295. +</pre> + <p> + Another and very fruitful source of explanatory myths is found in ancient + centres of volcanic action, and especially in old craters of volcanoes and + fissures filled with water. + </p> + <p> + In China we have, among other examples, Lake Man, which was once the site + of the flourishing city Chiang Shui—overwhelmed and sunk on account + of the heedlessness of its inhabitants regarding a divine warning. + </p> + <p> + In Phrygia, the lake and morass near Tyana were ascribed to the wrath of + Zeus and Hermes, who, having visited the cities which formerly stood + there, and having been refused shelter by all the inhabitants save + Philemon and Baucis, rewarded their benefactors, but sunk the wicked + cities beneath the lake and morass. + </p> + <p> + Stories of similar import grew up to explain the crater near Sipylos in + Asia Minor and that of Avernus in Italy: the latter came to be considered + the mouth of the infernal regions, as every schoolboy knows when he has + read his Virgil. + </p> + <p> + In the later Christian mythologies we have such typical legends as those + which grew up about the old crater in Ceylon; the salt water in it being + accounted for by supposing it the tears of Adam and Eve, who retreated to + this point after their expulsion from paradise and bewailed their sin + during a hundred years. + </p> + <p> + So, too, in Germany we have multitudes of lakes supposed to owe their + origin to the sinking of valleys as a punishment for human sin. Of these + are the "Devil's Lake," near Gustrow, which rose and covered a church and + its priests on account of their corruption; the lake at Probst-Jesar, + which rose and covered an oak grove and a number of peasants resting in it + on account of their want of charity to beggars; and the Lucin Lake, which + rose and covered a number of soldiers on account of their cruelty to a + poor peasant. + </p> + <p> + Such legends are found throughout America and in Japan, and will doubtless + be found throughout Asia and Africa, and especially among the volcanic + lakes of South America, the pitch lakes of the Caribbean Islands, and even + about the Salt Lake of Utah; for explanatory myths and legends under such + circumstances are inevitable.(424) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (424) As to myths explaining volcanic craters and lakes, and embodying +ideas of the wrath of Heaven against former inhabitants of the +neighboring country, see Forbiger, Alte Geographie, Hamburg, 1877, vol. +i, p. 563. For exaggerations concerning the Dead Sea, see ibid., vol. i, +p. 575. For the sinking of Chiang Shui and other examples, see Denny's +Folklore of China, pp. 126 et seq. For the sinking of the Phrygian +region, the destruction of its inhabitants, and the saving of Philemon +and Baucis, see Ovid's Metamorphoses, book viii; also Botticher, +Baumcultus der Alten, etc. For the lake in Ceylon arising from the tears +of Adam and Eve, see variants of the original legend in Mandeville and +in Jurgen Andersen, Reisebeschreibung, 1669, vol. ii, p. 132. For +the volcanic nature of the Dead Sea, see Daubeny, cited in Smith's +Dictionary of the Bible, s.v. Palestine. For lakes in Germany owing +their origin to human sin and various supernatural causes, see Karl +Bartsch, Sagen, Marche und Gebrauche aus Meklenburg, vol. i, pp. 397 et +seq. For lakes in America, see any good collection of Indian legends. +For lakes in Japan sunk supernaturally, see Braun's Japanesische Marche +und Sagen, Leipsic, 1885, pp. 350, 351. +</pre> + <p> + To the same manner of explaining striking appearances in physical + geography, and especially strange rocks and boulders, we mainly owe the + innumerable stories of the transformation of living beings, and especially + of men and women, into these natural features. + </p> + <p> + In the mythology of China we constantly come upon legends of such + transformations—from that of the first Counsellor of the Han dynasty + to those of shepherds and sheep. In the Brahmanic mythology of India, + Salagrama, the fossil ammonite, is recognised as containing the body of + Vishnu's wife, and the Binlang stone has much the same relation to Siva; + so, too, the nymph Ramba was changed, for offending Ketu, into a mass of + sand; by the breath of Siva elephants were turned into stone; and in a + very touching myth Luxman is changed into stone but afterward released. In + the Buddhist mythology a Nat demon is represented as changing himself into + a grain of sand. + </p> + <p> + Among the Greeks such transformation myths come constantly before us—both + the changing of stones to men and the changing of men to stones. Deucalion + and Pyrrha, escaping from the flood, repeopled the earth by casting behind + them stones which became men and women; Heraulos was changed into stone + for offending Mercury; Pyrrhus for offending Rhea; Phineus, and Polydectes + with his guests, for offending Perseus: under the petrifying glance of + Medusa's head such transformations became a thing of course. + </p> + <p> + To myth-making in obedience to the desire of explaining unusual natural + appearances, coupled with the idea that sin must be followed by + retribution, we also owe the well-known Niobe myth. Having incurred the + divine wrath, Niobe saw those dearest to her destroyed by missiles from + heaven, and was finally transformed into a rock on Mount Sipylos which + bore some vague resemblance to the human form, and her tears became the + rivulets which trickled from the neighbouring strata. + </p> + <p> + Thus, in obedience to a moral and intellectual impulse, a striking + geographical appearance was explained, and for ages pious Greeks looked + with bated breath upon the rock at Sipylos which was once Niobe, just as + for ages pious Jews, Christians, and Mohammedans looked with awe upon the + salt pillar at the Dead Sea which was once Lot's wife. + </p> + <p> + Pausanias, one of the most honest of ancient travellers, gives us a + notable exhibition of this feeling. Having visited this monument of divine + vengeance at Mount Sipylos, he tells us very naively that, though he could + discern no human features when standing near it, he thought that he could + see them when standing at a distance. There could hardly be a better + example of that most common and deceptive of all things—belief + created by the desire to believe. + </p> + <p> + In the pagan mythology of Scandinavia we have such typical examples as + Bors slaying the giant Ymir and transforming his bones into boulders; also + "the giant who had no heart" transforming six brothers and their wives + into stone; and, in the old Christian mythology, St. Olaf changing into + stone the wicked giants who opposed his preaching. + </p> + <p> + So, too, in Celtic countries we have in Ireland such legends as those of + the dancers turned into stone; and, in Brittany, the stones at Plesse, + which were once hunters and dogs violating the sanctity of Sunday; and the + stones of Carnac, which were once soldiers who sought to kill St. Cornely. + </p> + <p> + Teutonic mythology inherited from its earlier Eastern days a similar mass + of old legends, and developed a still greater mass of new ones. Thus, near + the Konigstein, which all visitors to the Saxon Switzerland know so well, + is a boulder which for ages was believed to have once been a maiden + transformed into stone for refusing to go to church; and near Rosenberg in + Mecklenburg is another curiously shaped stone of which a similar story is + told. Near Spornitz, in the same region, are seven boulders whose forms + and position are accounted for by a long and circumstantial legend that + they were once seven impious herdsmen; near Brahlsdorf is a stone which, + according to a similar explanatory myth, was once a blasphemous shepherd; + near Schwerin are three boulders which were once wasteful servants; and at + Neustadt, down to a recent period, was shown a collection of stones which + were once a bride and bridegroom with their horses—all punished for + an act of cruelty; and these stories are but typical of thousands. + </p> + <p> + At the other extremity of Europe we may take, out of the multitude of + explanatory myths, that which grew about the well-known group of boulders + near Belgrade. In the midst of them stands one larger than the rest: + according to the legend which was developed to account for all these, + there once lived there a swineherd, who was disrespectful to the + consecrated Host; whereupon he was changed into the larger stone, and his + swine into the smaller ones. So also at Saloniki we have the pillars of + the ruined temple, which are widely believed, especially among the Jews of + that region, to have once been human beings, and are therefore known as + the "enchanted columns." + </p> + <p> + Among the Arabs we have an addition to our sacred account of Adam—the + legend of the black stone of the Caaba at Mecca, into which the angel was + changed who was charged by the Almighty to keep Adam away from the + forbidden fruit, and who neglected his duty. + </p> + <p> + Similar old transformation legends are abundant among the Indians of + America, the negroes of Africa, and the natives of Australia and the + Pacific islands. + </p> + <p> + Nor has this making of myths to account for remarkable appearances yet + ceased, even in civilized countries. + </p> + <p> + About the beginning of this century the Grand Duke of Weimar, smitten with + the classical mania of his time, placed in the public park near his palace + a little altar, and upon this was carved, after the manner so frequent in + classical antiquity, a serpent taking a cake from it. And shortly there + appeared, in the town and the country round about, a legend to explain + this altar and its decoration. It was commonly said that a huge serpent + had laid waste that region in the olden time, until a wise and benevolent + baker had rid the world of the monster by means of a poisoned biscuit. + </p> + <p> + So, too, but a few years since, in the heart of the State of New York, a + swindler of genius having made and buried a "petrified giant," one + theologian explained it by declaring it a Phoenician idol, and published + the Phoenician inscription which he thought he had found upon it; others + saw in it proofs that "there were giants in those days," and within a week + after its discovery myths were afloat that the neighbouring remnant of the + Onondaga Indians had traditions of giants who frequently roamed through + that region.(425) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (425) For transformation myths and legends, identifying rocks and stones +with gods and heroes, see Welcker, Gotterlehre, vol. i, p. 220. For +recent and more accessible statements for the general reader, see +Robertson Smith's admirable Lectures on the Religion of the Semites, +Edinburgh, 1889, pp. 86 et seq. For some thoughtful remarks on the +ancient adoration of stones rather than statues, with refernce to +the anointing of stones at Bethel by Jacob, see Dodwell, Tour through +Greece, vol. ii, p. 172; also Robertson Smith, as above, Lecture V. For +Chinese transformation legends, see Denny's Folklore of China, pp. 96, +128. For Hindu and other ancient legends of transformations, see +Dawson, Dictionary of Hindu Mythology; also Coleman, as above; also Cox, +Mythology of the Aryan Nations, pp. 81-97, etc. For such transformations +in Greece, see the Iliad, and Ovid, as above; also Stark, Niobe und die +Niobiden, p. 444 and elsewhere; also Preller, Griechische Mythologie, +passim; also Baumeister, Denkmaler des classischen Alterthums, article +Niobe; also Botticher, as above; also Curtius, Griechische Geschichte, +vol i, pp. 71, 72. For Pausanius's naive confession regarding the +Sipylos rock, see book i, p. 215. See also Texier, Asie Mineure, pp. 265 +et seq.; also Chandler, Travels in Greece, vol. ii, p. 80, who seems to +hold to the later origin of the statue. At the end of Baumeister there +is an engraving copied from Stuart which seems to show that, as to the +Niobe legend, at a later period, Art was allowed to help Nature. For the +general subject, see Scheiffle, Programm des K. Gymnasiums in +Ellwangen: Mythologische Parallelen, 1865. For Scandinavian and Teutonic +transformation legends, see Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, vierte Ausg., +vol. i, p. 457; also Thorpe, Northern Antiquities; also Friedrich, +passim, especially p. 116 et seq.; also, for a mass of very curious +ones, Karl Bartsch, Sagen, Marchen und gebrauche aus Meklenburg, vol. i, +pp. 420 et seq.; also Karl Simrock's edition of the Edda, ninth edition, +p. 319; also John Fiske, Myths and Myth-makers, pp. 8, 9. On the +universality of such legends and myths, see Ritter's Erdkunde, vol. xiv, +pp. 1098-1122. For Irish examples, see Manz, Real-Encyclopadie, article +Stein; and for multitudes of examples in Brittany, see Sebillot, +Traditions de la Haute-Bretagne. For the enchanted columns at Saloniki, +see the latest edition of Murray's Handbook of Turkey, vol. ii, p. 711. +For the legend of the angel changed into stone for neglecting to guard +Adam, see Weil, university librarian at Heidelberg, Biblische Legende +der Muselmanner, Frankfort-am-Main, 1845, pp. 37, 84. For similar +transformation legends in Australia and among the American Indians, see +Andrew Lang, Mythology, French translation, pp. 83, 102; also his Myth, +Ritual, and Religion, vol. i, pp. 150 et seq., citing numerous examples +from J. G. Muller, Urreligionen, and Dorman's Primitive Superstitions; +also Report of the Bureau of Ethnoligy for 1880-'81; and for an African +example, see account of the rock at Balon which was once a woman, in +Berenger-Feraud, Contes populaires de la Senegambie, chap. viii. For the +Weimar legend, see Lewes, Life of Goethe, book iv. For the myths which +arose about the swindling "Cardiff giant" in the State of New York, see +especially an article by G. A. Stockwell, M. D., in The Popular Science +Monthly for June, 1878; see also W. A. McKinney in The New-Englander +for October, 1875; and for the "Phoenician inscription," given at length +with a translation, see the Rev. Alexander McWhorter, in The Galaxy for +July, 1872. The present writer visited the "giant" shortly after it +was "discovered," carefully observed it, and the myths to which it gave +rise, has in his possession a mass of curious documents regarding this +fraud, and hopes ere long to prepare a supplement to Dr. Stockwell's +valuable paper. +</pre> + <p> + To the same stage of thought belongs the conception of human beings + changed into trees. But, in the historic evolution of religion and + morality, while changes into stone or rock were considered as punishments, + or evidences of divine wrath, those into trees and shrubs were frequently + looked upon as rewards, or evidences of divine favour. + </p> + <p> + A very beautiful and touching form of this conception is seen in such + myths as the change of Philemon into the oak, and of Baucis into the + linden; of Myrrha into the myrtle; of Melos into the apple tree; of Attis + into the pine; of Adonis into the rose tree; and in the springing of the + vine and grape from the blood of the Titans, the violet from the blood of + Attis, and the hyacinth from the blood of Hyacinthus. + </p> + <p> + Thus it was, during the long ages when mankind saw everywhere miracle and + nowhere law, that, in the evolution of religion and morality, striking + features in physical geography became connected with the idea of divine + retribution.(426) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (426) For the view taken in Greece and Rome of transformations into +trees and shrubs, see Botticher, Baumcultus der Hellenen, book i, chap. +xix; also Ovid, Metamorphoses, passim; also foregoing notes. +</pre> + <p> + But, in the natural course of intellectual growth, thinking men began to + doubt the historical accuracy of these myths and legends—or, at + least, to doubt all save those of the theology in which they happened to + be born; and the next step was taken when they began to make comparisons + between the myths and legends of different neighbourhoods and countries: + so came into being the science of comparative mythology—a science + sure to be of vast value, because, despite many stumblings and vagaries, + it shows ever more and more how our religion and morality have been + gradually evolved, and gives a firm basis to a faith that higher planes + may yet be reached. + </p> + <p> + Such a science makes the sacred books of the world more and more precious, + in that it shows how they have been the necessary envelopes of our highest + spiritual sustenance; how even myths and legends apparently the most + puerile have been the natural husks and rinds and shells of our best + ideas; and how the atmosphere is created in which these husks and rinds + and shells in due time wither, shrivel, and fall away, so that the fruit + itself may be gathered to sustain a nobler religion and a purer morality. + </p> + <p> + The coming in of Christianity contributed elements of inestimable value in + this evolution, and, at the centre of all, the thoughts, words, and life + of the Master. But when, in the darkness that followed the downfall of the + Roman Empire, there was developed a theology and a vast ecclesiastical + power to enforce it, the most interesting chapters in this evolution of + religion and morality were removed from the domain of science. + </p> + <p> + So it came that for over eighteen hundred years it has been thought + natural and right to study and compare the myths and legends arising east + and west and south and north of Palestine with each other, but never with + those of Palestine itself; so it came that one of the regions most + fruitful in materials for reverent thought and healthful comparison was + held exempt from the unbiased search for truth; so it came that, in the + name of truth, truth was crippled for ages. While observation, and thought + upon observation, and the organized knowledge or science which results + from these, progressed as regarded the myths and legends of other + countries, and an atmosphere was thus produced giving purer conceptions of + the world and its government, myths of that little geographical region at + the eastern end of the Mediterranean retained possession of the civilized + world in their original crude form, and have at times done much to thwart + the noblest efforts of religion, morality, and civilization. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0077" id="link2H_4_0077"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II. MEDIAEVAL GROWTH OF THE DEAD SEA LEGENDS. + </h2> + <p> + The history of myths, of their growth under the earlier phases of human + thought and of their decline under modern thinking, is one of the most + interesting and suggestive of human studies; but, since to treat it as a + whole would require volumes, I shall select only one small group, and out + of this mainly a single myth—one about which there can no longer be + any dispute—the group of myths and legends which grew upon the shore + of the Dead Sea, and especially that one which grew up to account for the + successive salt columns washed out by the rains at its southwestern + extremity. + </p> + <p> + The Dead Sea is about fifty miles in length and ten miles in width; it + lies in a very deep fissure extending north and south, and its surface is + about thirteen hundred feet below that of the Mediterranean. It has, + therefore, no outlet, and is the receptacle for the waters of the whole + system to which it belongs, including those collected by the Sea of + Galilee and brought down thence by the river Jordan. + </p> + <p> + It certainly—or at least the larger part of it—ranks + geologically among the oldest lakes on earth. In a broad sense the region + is volcanic: On its shore are evidences of volcanic action, which must + from the earliest period have aroused wonder and fear, and stimulated the + myth-making tendency to account for them. On the eastern side are + impressive mountain masses which have been thrown up from old volcanic + vents; mineral and hot springs abound, some of them spreading sulphurous + odours; earthquakes have been frequent, and from time to time these have + cast up masses of bitumen; concretions of sulphur and large formations of + salt constantly appear. + </p> + <p> + The water which comes from the springs or oozes through the salt layers + upon its shores constantly brings in various salts in solution, and, being + rapidly evaporated under the hot sun and dry wind, there has been left, in + the bed of the lake, a strong brine heavily charged with the usual + chlorides and bromides—a sort of bitter "mother liquor" This fluid + has become so dense as to have a remarkable power of supporting the human + body; it is of an acrid and nauseating bitterness; and by ordinary eyes no + evidence of life is seen in it. + </p> + <p> + Thus it was that in the lake itself, and in its surrounding shores, there + was enough to make the generation of explanatory myths on a large scale + inevitable. + </p> + <p> + The main northern part of the lake is very deep, the plummet having shown + an abyss of thirteen hundred feet; but the southern end is shallow and in + places marshy. + </p> + <p> + The system of which it forms a part shows a likeness to that in South + America of which the mountain lake Titicaca is the main feature; as a + receptacle for surplus waters, only rendering them by evaporation, it + resembles the Caspian and many other seas; as a sort of evaporating dish + for the leachings of salt rock, and consequently holding a body of water + unfit to support the higher forms of animal life, it resembles, among + others, the Median lake of Urumiah; as a deposit of bitumen, it resembles + the pitch lakes of Trinidad.(427) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (427) For modern views of the Dead Sea, see the Rev. Edward Robinson, D. +D., Biblical Researches, various editions; Lynch's Exploring Expedition; +De Saulcy, Voyage autour de la Mer Morte; Stanley's Palestine and Syria; +Schaff's Through Bible Lands; and other travellers hereafter quoted. For +good photogravures, showing the character of the whole region, see the +atlas forming part of De Luynes's monumental Voyage d'Exploration. For +geographical summaries, see Reclus, La Terre, Paris, 1870, pp. 832-834; +Ritter, Erdkunde, volumes devoted to Palestine and especially as +supplemented in Gage's translation with additions; Reclus, Nouvelle +Geographie Universelle, vol. ix, p. 736, where a small map is given +presenting the difference in depth between the two ends of the lake, +of which so much was made theologically before Lartet. For still better +maps, see De Saulcy, and especially De Luynes, Voyage d'Exploration +(atlas). For very interesting panoramic views, see last edition of Canon +Tristram's Land of Israel, p. 635. For the geology, see Lartet, in his +reports to the French Geographical Society, and especially in vol. iii +of De Luynes's work, where there is an admirable geological map with +sections, etc.; also Ritter; also Sir J. W. Dawson's Egypt and Syria, +published by the Religious Tract Society; also Rev. Cunningham Geikie, +D. D., Geology of Palestine; and for pictures showing salt formation, +Tristram, as above. For the meteorology, see Vignes, report to De +Luynes, pp. 65 et seq. For chemistry of the Dead Sea, see as above, +and Terreil's report, given in Gage's Ritter, vol. iii, appendix 2, and +tables in De Luynes's third volume. For zoology of the Dead Sea, as to +entire absence of life in it, see all earlier travellers; as to presence +of lower forms of life, see Ehrenberg's microscopic examinations in +Gage's Ritter. See also reports in third volume of De Luynes. For botany +of the Dead Sea, and especially regarding "apples of Sodom," see Dr. +Lortet's La Syrie, p. 412; also Reclus, Nouvelle Geographie, vol. ix, +p. 737; also for photographic representations of them, see portfolio +forming part of De Luynes's work, plate 27. For Strabo's very perfect +description, see his Geog., lib. xvi, cap. ii; also Fallmerayer, Werke, +pp. 177, 178. For names and positions of a large number of salt lakes in +various parts of the world more or less resembling the Dead Sea, see De +Luynes, vol. iii, pp. 242 et seq. For Trinidad "pitch lakes," found by +Sir Walter Raleigh in 1595, see Lengegg, El Dorado, part i, p. 103, and +part ii, p. 101; also Reclus, Ritter, et al. For the general subject, +see Schenkel, Bibel-Lexikon, s.v. Todtes Meer, an excellent summery. +The description of the Dead Sea in Lenormant's great history is utterly +unworthy of him, and must have been thrown together from old notes after +his death. It is amazing to see in such a work the old superstitions +that birds attempting to fly over the sea are suffocated. See Lenormant, +Histoire ancienne de l'Orient, edition of 1888, vol. vi, p. 112. For the +absorption and adoption of foreign myths and legends by the Jews, see +Baring-Gould, Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, p. 390. For the views of +Greeks and Romans, see especially Tacitus, Historiae, book v, Pliny, and +Strabo, in whose remarks are the germs of many of the mediaeval myths. +For very curious examples of these, see Baierus, De Excidio Sodomae, +Halle, 1690, passim. +</pre> + <p> + In all this there is nothing presenting any special difficulty to the + modern geologist or geographer; but with the early dweller in Palestine + the case was very different. The rocky, barren desolation of the Dead Sea + region impressed him deeply; he naturally reasoned upon it; and this + impression and reasoning we find stamped into the pages of his sacred + literature, rendering them all the more precious as a revelation of the + earlier thought of mankind. The long circumstantial account given in + Genesis, its application in Deuteronomy, its use by Amos, by Isaiah, by + Jeremiah, by Zephaniah, and by Ezekiel, the references to it in the + writings attributed to St. Paul, St. Peter, and St. Jude, in the + Apocalypse, and, above all, in more than one utterance of the Master + himself—all show how deeply these geographical features impressed + the Jewish mind. + </p> + <p> + At a very early period, myths and legends, many and circumstantial, grew + up to explain features then so incomprehensible. + </p> + <p> + As the myth and legend grew up among the Greeks of a refusal of + hospitality to Zeus and Hermes by the village in Phrygia, and the + consequent sinking of that beautiful region with its inhabitants beneath a + lake and morass, so there came belief in a similar offence by the people + of the beautiful valley of Siddim, and the consequent sinking of that + valley with its inhabitants beneath the waters of the Dead Sea. Very + similar to the accounts of the saving of Philemon and Baucis are those of + the saving of Lot and his family. + </p> + <p> + But the myth-making and miracle-mongering by no means ceased in ancient + times; they continued to grow through the medieval and modern period until + they have quietly withered away in the light of modern scientific + investigation, leaving to us the religious and moral truths they inclose. + </p> + <p> + It would be interesting to trace this whole group of myths: their origin + in times prehistoric, their development in Greece and Rome, their + culmination during the ages of faith, and their disappearance in the age + of science. It would be especially instructive to note the conscientious + efforts to prolong their life by making futile compromises between science + and theology regarding them; but I shall mention this main group only + incidentally, confining my self almost entirely to the one above named—the + most remarkable of all—the myth which grew about the salt pillars of + Usdum. + </p> + <p> + I select this mainly because it involves only elementary principles, + requires no abstruse reasoning, and because all controversy regarding it + is ended. There is certainly now no theologian with a reputation to lose + who will venture to revive the idea regarding it which was sanctioned for + hundreds, nay, thousands, of years by theology, was based on Scripture, + and was held by the universal Church until our own century. + </p> + <p> + The main feature of the salt region of Usdum is a low range of hills near + the southwest corner of the Dead Sea, extending in a southeasterly + direction for about five miles, and made up mainly of salt rock. This rock + is soft and friable, and, under the influence of the heavy winter rains, + it has been, without doubt, from a period long before human history, as it + is now, cut ever into new shapes, and especially into pillars or columns, + which sometimes bear a resemblance to the human form. + </p> + <p> + An eminent clergyman who visited this spot recently speaks of the + appearance of this salt range as follows: + </p> + <p> + "Fretted by fitful showers and storms, its ridge is exceedingly uneven, + its sides carved out and constantly changing;... and each traveller might + have a new pillar of salt to wonder over at intervals of a few + years."(428) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (428) As to the substance of the "pillars" or "statues" or "needles" of +salt at Usdum, many travellers speak of it as "marl and salt." Irby and +Mangles, in their Travels in Egypt, Nubia, Syria, and the Holy Land, +chap. vii, call it "salt and hardened sand." The citation as to frequent +carving out of new "pillars" is from the Travels in Palestine of the +Rev. H. F. Osborn, D. D.; see also Palmer, Desert of the Exodus, vol ii, +pp. 478, 479. For engravings of the salt pillar at different times, +compare that given by Lynch in 1848, when it appeared as a column forty +feet high, with that given by Palmer as the frontpiece to his Desert of +the Exodus, Cambridge, England, 1871, when it was small and "does +really bear a curious resemblance to an Arab woman with a child upon +he shoulders", and this again with the picture of the salt formation at +Usdum given by Canon Tristram, at whose visit there was neither "pillar" +nor "statue." See The Land of Israel, by H. B. Tristram, D. D., F. R. +S., London, 1882, p. 324. For similar pillars of salt washed out from +the mud at Catalonia, see Lyell. +</pre> + <p> + Few things could be more certain than that, in the indolent dream-life of + the East, myths and legends would grow up to account for this as for other + strange appearances in all that region. The question which a religious + Oriental put to himself in ancient times at Usdum was substantially that + which his descendant to-day puts to himself at Kosseir. "Why is this + region thus blasted?" "Whence these pillars of salt?" or "Whence these + blocks of granite?" "What aroused the vengeance of Jehovah or of Allah to + work these miracles of desolation?" + </p> + <p> + And, just as Maxime Du Camp recorded the answer of the modern Shemite at + Kosseir, so the compilers of the Jewish sacred books recorded the answer + of the ancient Shemite at the Dead Sea; just as Allah at Kosseir blasted + the land and transformed the melons into boulders which are seen to this + day, so Jehovah at Usdum blasted the land and transformed Lot's wife into + a pillar of salt, which is seen to this day. + </p> + <p> + No more difficulty was encountered in the formation of the Lot legend, to + account for that rock resembling the human form, than in the formation of + the Niobe legend, which accounted for a supposed resemblance in the rock + at Sipylos: it grew up just as we have seen thousands of similar myths and + legends grow up about striking natural appearances in every early home of + the human race. Being thus consonant with the universal view regarding the + relation of physical geography to the divine government, it became a + treasure of the Jewish nation and of the Christian Church—a treasure + not only to be guarded against all hostile intrusion, but to be increased, + as we shall see, by the myth-making powers of Jews, Christians, and + Mohammedans for thousands of years. The spot where the myth originated was + carefully kept in mind; indeed, it could not escape, for in that place + alone were constantly seen the phenomena which gave rise to it. We have a + steady chain of testimony through the ages, all pointing to the salt + pillar as the irrefragable evidence of divine judgment. That great + theological test of truth, the dictum of St. Vincent of Lerins, would + certainly prove that the pillar was Lot's wife, for it was believed so to + be by Jews, Christians, and Mohammedans from the earliest period down to a + time almost within present memory—"always, everywhere, and by all." + It would stand perfectly the ancient test insisted upon by Cardinal + Newman," Securus judicat orbis terrarum." + </p> + <p> + For, ever since the earliest days of Christianity, the identity of the + salt pillar with Lot's wife has been universally held and supported by + passages in Genesis, in St. Luke's Gospel, and in the Second Epistle of + St. Peter—coupled with a passage in the book of the Wisdom of + Solomon, which to this day, by a majority in the Christian Church, is + believed to be inspired, and from which are specially cited the words, "A + standing pillar of salt is a monument of an unbelieving soul."(429) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (429) For the usual biblical citations, see Genesis xix, 26; St. Luke +xvii, 32; II Peter ii, 6. For the citation from Wisdom, see chap. x, +v. 7. For the account of the transformation of Lot's wife put into +its proper relations with the Jehovistic and Elohistic documents, see +Lenormant's La Genese, Paris, 1883, pp. 53, 199, and 317, 318. +</pre> + <p> + Never was chain of belief more continuous. In the first century of the + Christian era Josephus refers to the miracle, and declares regarding the + statue, "I have seen it, and it remains at this day"; and Clement, Bishop + of Rome, one of the most revered fathers of the Church, noted for the + moderation of his statements, expresses a similar certainty, declaring the + miraculous statue to be still standing. + </p> + <p> + In the second century that great father of the Church, bishop and martyr, + Irenaeus, not only vouched for it, but gave his approval to the belief + that the soul of Lot's wife still lingered in the statue, giving it a sort + of organic life: thus virtually began in the Church that amazing + development of the legend which we shall see taking various forms through + the Middle Ages—the story that the salt statue exercised certain + physical functions which in these more delicate days can not be alluded to + save under cover of a dead language. + </p> + <p> + This addition to the legend, which in these signs of life, as in other + things, is developed almost exactly on the same lines with the legend of + the Niobe statue in the rock of Mount Sipylos and with the legends of + human beings transformed into boulders in various mythologies, was for + centuries regarded as an additional confirmation of revealed truth. + </p> + <p> + In the third century the myth burst into still richer bloom in a poem long + ascribed to Tertullian. In this poem more miraculous characteristics of + the statue are revealed. It could not be washed away by rains; it could + not be overthrown by winds; any wound made upon it was miraculously + healed; and the earlier statements as to its physical functions were + amplified in sonorous Latin verse. + </p> + <p> + With this appeared a new legend regarding the Dead Sea; it became + universally believed, and we find it repeated throughout the whole + medieval period, that the bitumen could only he dissolved by such fluids + as in the processes of animated nature came from the statue. + </p> + <p> + The legend thus amplified we shall find dwelt upon by pious travellers and + monkish chroniclers for hundreds of years: so it came to be more and more + treasured by the universal Church, and held more and more firmly—"always, + everywhere, and by all." + </p> + <p> + In the two following centuries we have an overwhelming mass of additional + authority for the belief that the very statue of salt into which Lot's + wife was transformed was still existing. In the fourth, the continuance of + the statue was vouched for by St. Silvia, who visited the place: though + she could not see it, she was told by the Bishop of Segor that it had been + there some time before, and she concluded that it had been temporarily + covered by the sea. In both the fourth and fifth centuries such great + doctors in the Church as St. Jerome, St. John Chrysostom, and St. Cyril of + Jerusalem agreed in this belief and statement; hence it was, doubtless, + that the Hebrew word which is translated in the authorized English version + "pillar," was translated in the Vulgate, which the majority of Christians + believe virtually inspired, by the word "statue"; we shall find this fact + insisted upon by theologians arguing in behalf of the statue, as a result + and monument of the miracle, for over fourteen hundred years + afterward.(430) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (430) See Josephus, Antiquities, book i, chap. xi; Epist. I; Cyril +Hieros, Catech., xix; Chrysostom, Hom. XVIII, XLIV, in Genes.; Irenaeus, +lib. iv, c. xxxi, of his Heresies, edition Oxon., 1702. For St. Silvia, +see S. Silviae Aquitanae Peregrinatio ad Loca Sancta, Romae, 1887, p. +55; also edition of 1885, p. 25. For recent translation, see Pilgrimage +of St. Silvia, p. 28, in publications of Palestine Text Society for +1891. For legends of signs of continued life in boulders and stones +into which human beings have been transformed for sin, see Karl Bartsch, +Sage, etc., vol. ii, pp. 420 et seq. +</pre> + <p> + About the middle of the sixth century Antoninus Martyr visited the Dead + Sea region and described it, but curiously reversed a simple truth in + these words: "Nor do sticks or straws float there, nor can a man swim, but + whatever is cast into it sinks to the bottom." As to the statue of Lot's + wife, he threw doubt upon its miraculous renewal, but testified that it + was still standing. + </p> + <p> + In the seventh century the Targum of Jerusalem not only testified that the + salt pillar at Usdum was once Lot's wife, but declared that she must + retain that form until the general resurrection. In the seventh century + too, Bishop Arculf travelled to the Dead Sea, and his work was added to + the treasures of the Church. He greatly develops the legend, and + especially that part of it given by Josephus. The bitumen that floats upon + the sea "resembles gold and the form of a bull or camel"; "birds can not + live near it"; and "the very beautiful apples" which grow there, when + plucked, "burn and are reduced to ashes, and smoke as if they were still + burning." + </p> + <p> + In the eighth century the Venerable Bede takes these statements of Arculf + and his predecessors, binds them together in his work on The Holy Places, + and gives the whole mass of myths and legends an enormous impulse.(431) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (431) For Antoninus Martyr, see Tobler's edition of his work in the +Itinera, vol. i, p. 100, Geneva, 1877. For the Targum of Jerusalem, see +citation in Quaresmius, Terrae Sanctae Elucidation, Peregrinatio vi, +cap. xiv; new Venice edition. For Arculf, see Tobler. For Bede, see his +De Locis Sanctis in Tobler's Itinera, vol. i, p. 228. For an admirable +statement of the mediaeval theological view of scientific research, +see Eicken, Geschichte der mittelalterlichen Weltanschauung, Stuttgart, +1887, chap. vi. +</pre> + <p> + In the tenth century new force is given to it by the pious Moslem + Mukadassi. Speaking of the town of Segor, near the salt region, he says + that the proper translation of its name is "Hell"; and of the lake he + says, "Its waters are hot, even as though the place stood over hell-fire." + </p> + <p> + In the crusading period, immediately following, all the legends burst + forth more brilliantly than ever. + </p> + <p> + The first of these new travellers who makes careful statements is Fulk of + Chartres, who in 1100 accompanied King Baldwin to the Dead Sea and saw + many wonders; but, though he visited the salt region at Usdum, he makes no + mention of the salt pillar: evidently he had fallen on evil times; the + older statues had probably been washed away, and no new one had happened + to be washed out of the rocks just at that period. + </p> + <p> + But his misfortune was more than made up by the triumphant experience of a + far more famous traveller, half a century later—Rabbi Benjamin of + Tudela. + </p> + <p> + Rabbi Benjamin finds new evidences of miracle in the Dead Sea, and + develops to a still higher point the legend of the salt statue of Lot's + wife, enriching the world with the statement that it was steadily and + miraculously rene wed; that, though the cattle of the region licked its + surface, it never grew smaller. Again a thrill of joy went through the + monasteries and pulpits of Christendom at this increasing "evidence of the + truth of Scripture." + </p> + <p> + Toward the end of the thirteenth century there appeared in Palestine a + traveller superior to most before or since—Count Burchard, monk of + Mount Sion. He had the advantage of knowing something of Arabic, and his + writings show him to have been observant and thoughtful. No statue of + Lot's wife appears to have been washed clean of the salt rock at his + visit, but he takes it for granted that the Dead Sea is "the mouth of + hell," and that the vapour rising from it is the smoke from Satan's + furnaces. + </p> + <p> + These ideas seem to have become part of the common stock, for Ernoul, who + travelled to the Dead Sea during the same century, always speaks of it as + the "Sea of Devils." + </p> + <p> + Near the beginning of the fourteenth century appeared the book of far + wider influence which bears the name of Sir John Mandeville, and in the + various editions of it myths and legends of the Dead Sea and of the pillar + of salt burst forth into wonderful luxuriance. + </p> + <p> + This book tells us that masses of fiery matter are every day thrown up + from the water "as large as a horse"; that, though it contains no living + thing, it has been shown that men thrown into it can not die; and, + finally, as if to prove the worthlessness of devout testimony to the + miraculous, he says: "And whoever throws a piece of iron therein, it + floats; and whoever throws a feather therein, it sinks to the bottom; and, + because that is contrary to nature, I was not willing to believe it until + I saw it." + </p> + <p> + The book, of course, mentions Lot's wife, and says that the pillar of salt + "stands there to-day," and "has a right salty taste." + </p> + <p> + Injustice has perhaps been done to the compilers of this famous work in + holding them liars of the first magnitude. They simply abhorred + scepticism, and thought it meritorious to believe all pious legends. The + ideal Mandeville was a man of overmastering faith, and resembled + Tertullian in believing some things "because they are impossible"; he was + doubtless entirely conscientious; the solemn ending of the book shows that + he listened, observed, and wrote under the deepest conviction, and those + who re-edited his book were probably just as honest in adding the later + stories of pious travellers. + </p> + <p> + The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, thus appealing to the popular heart, + were most widely read in the monasteries and repeated among the people. + Innumerable copies were made in manuscript, and finally in print, and so + the old myths received a new life.(432) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (432) For Fulk of Chartres and crusading travellers generally, see +Bongars' Gesta Dei and the French Recueil; also Histories of the +Crusades by Wilken, Sybel, Kugler, and others; see also Robinson, +Biblical Researches, vol. ii, p. 109, and Tobler, Bibliographia +Geographica Palestinae, 1867, p. 12. For Benjamin of Tudela's statement, +see Wright's Collection of Travels in Palestine, p. 84, and Asher's +edition of Benjamin of Tudela's travels, vol. i, pp. 71, 72; also +Charton, vol. i, p. 180. For Borchard or Burchard, see full text in the +Reyssbuch dess Heyligen Landes; also Grynaeus, Nov. Orbis, Basil, 1532, +fol. 298, 329. For Ernoul, see his L'Estat de la Cite de Hierusalem, in +Michelant and Reynaud, Itineraires Francaises au 12me et 13me Siecles. +For Petrus Diaconus, see his book De Locis Sanctis, edited by Gamurrini, +Rome, 1887, pp. 126, 127. For Mandeville I have compared several +editions, especially those in the Reyssbuch, in Canisius, and in Wright, +with Halliwell's reprint and with the rare Strasburg edition of 1484 +in the Cornell University Library: the whole statement regarding the +experiment with iron and feathers is given differently in different +copies. The statement that he saw the feathers sink and the iron swim +is made in the Reyssbuch edition, Frankfort, 1584. The story, like the +saints' legends, evidently grew as time went on, but is none the less +interesting as showing the general credulity. Since writing the above, I +have been glad to find my view of Mandeville's honesty confirmed by the +Rev. Dr. Robinson, and by Mr. Gage in his edition of Ritter's Palestine. +</pre> + <p> + In the fifteenth century wonders increased. In 1418 we have the Lord of + Caumont, who makes a pilgrimage and gives us a statement which is the + result of the theological reasoning of centuries, and especially + interesting as a typical example of the theological method in contrast + with the scientific. He could not understand how the blessed waters of the + Jordan could be allowed to mingle with the accursed waters of the Dead + Sea. In spite, then, of the eye of sense, he beheld the water with the eye + of faith, and calmly announced that the Jordan water passes through the + sea, but that the two masses of water are not mingled. As to the salt + statue of Lot's wife, he declares it to be still existing; and, copying a + table of indulgences granted by the Church to pious pilgrims, he puts down + the visit to the salt statue as giving an indulgence of seven years. + </p> + <p> + Toward the end of the century we have another traveller yet more + influential: Bernard of Breydenbach, Dean of Mainz. His book of travels + was published in 1486, at the famous press of Schoeffer, and in various + translations it was spread through Europe, exercising an influence wide + and deep. His first important notice of the Dead Sea is as follows: "In + this, Tirus the serpent is found, and from him the Tiriac medicine is + made. He is blind, and so full of venom that there is no remedy for his + bite except cutting off the bitten part. He can only be taken by striking + him and making him angry; then his venom flies into his head and tail." + Breydenbach calls the Dead Sea "the chimney of hell," and repeats the old + story as to the miraculous solvent for its bitumen. He, too, makes the + statement that the holy water of the Jordan does not mingle with the + accursed water of the infernal sea, but increases the miracle which + Caumont had announced by saying that, although the waters appear to come + together, the Jordan is really absorbed in the earth before it reaches the + sea. + </p> + <p> + As to Lot's wife, various travellers at that time had various fortunes. + Some, like Caumont and Breydenbach, took her continued existence for + granted; some, like Count John of Solms, saw her and were greatly edified; + some, like Hans Werli, tried to find her and could not, but, like St. + Silvia, a thousand years before, were none the less edified by the idea + that, for some inscrutable purpose, the sea had been allowed to hide her + from them; some found her larger than they expected, even forty feet high, + as was the salt pillar which happened to be standing at the visit of + Commander Lynch in 1848; but this only added a new proof to the miracle, + for the text was remembered, "There were giants in those days." + </p> + <p> + Out of the mass of works of pilgrims during the fifteenth century I select + just one more as typical of the theological view then dominant, and this + is the noted book of Felix Fabri, a preaching friar of Ulm. I select him, + because even so eminent an authority in our own time as Dr. Edward + Robinson declares him to have been the most thorough, thoughtful, and + enlightened traveller of that century. + </p> + <p> + Fabri is greatly impressed by the wonders of the Dead Sea, and typical of + his honesty influenced by faith is his account of the Dead Sea fruit; he + describes it with almost perfect accuracy, but adds the statement that + when mature it is "filled with ashes and cinders." + </p> + <p> + As to the salt statue, he says: "We saw the place between the sea and + Mount Segor, but could not see the statue itself because we were too far + distant to see anything of human size; but we saw it with firm faith, + because we believed Scripture, which speaks of it; and we were filled with + wonder." + </p> + <p> + To sustain absolute faith in the statue he reminds his reader's that "God + is able even of these stones to raise up seed to Abraham," and goes into a + long argument, discussing such transformations as those of King Atlas and + Pygmalion's statue, with a multitude of others, winding up with the case, + given in the miracles of St. Jerome, of a heretic who was changed into a + log of wood, which was then burned. + </p> + <p> + He gives a statement of the Hebrews that Lot's wife received her peculiar + punishment because she had refused to add salt to the food of the angels + when they visited her, and he preaches a short sermon in which he says + that, as salt is the condiment of food, so the salt statue of Lot's wife + "gives us a condiment of wisdom."(433) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (433) For Bernard of Breydenbach, I have used the Latin edition, Mentz, +1486, in the White collection, Cornell University, also the German +edition in the Reyssbuch. For John of Solms, Werli, and the like, see +the Reyssbuch, which gives a full text of their travels. For Fabri +(Schmid), see, for his value, Robinson; also Tobler, Bibliographia, pp. +53 et seq.; and for texts, see Reyssbuch, pp. 122b et seq., but best the +Fratris Fel. Fabri Evagatorium, ed. Hassler, Stuttgart, 1843, vol. iii, +pp. 172 et seq. His book now has been translated into English by the +Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society. +</pre> + <p> + There were, indeed, many discrepancies in the testimony of travellers + regarding the salt pillar—so many, in fact, that at a later period + the learned Dom Calmet acknowledged that they shook his belief in the + whole matter; but, during this earlier time, under the complete sway of + the theological spirit, these difficulties only gave new and more glorious + opportunities for faith. + </p> + <p> + For, if a considerable interval occurred between the washing of one salt + pillar out of existence and the washing of another into existence, the + idea arose that the statue, by virtue of the soul which still remained in + it, had departed on some mysterious excursion. Did it happen that one + statue was washed out one year in one place and another statue another + year in another place, this difficulty was surmounted by believing that + Lot's wife still walked about. Did it happen that a salt column was + undermined by the rains and fell, this was believed to be but another sign + of life. Did a pillar happen to be covered in part by the sea, this was + enough to arouse the belief that the statue from time to time descended + into the Dead Sea depths—possibly to satisfy that old fatal + curiosity regarding her former neighbours. + </p> + <p> + Did some smaller block of salt happen to be washed out near the statue, it + was believed that a household dog, also transformed into salt, had + followed her back from beneath the deep. Did more statues than one appear + at one time, that simply made the mystery more impressive. + </p> + <p> + In facts now so easy of scientific explanation the theologians found + wonderful matter for argument. + </p> + <p> + One great question among them was whether the soul of Lot's wife did + really remain in the statue. On one side it was insisted that, as Holy + Scripture declares that Lot's wife was changed into a pillar of salt, and + as she was necessarily made up of a soul and a body, the soul must have + become part of the statue. This argument was clinched by citing that + passage in the Book of Wisdom in which the salt pillar is declared to be + still standing as "the monument of an unbelieving SOUL." On the other + hand, it was insisted that the soul of the woman must have been + incorporeal and immortal, and hence could not have been changed into a + substance corporeal and mortal. Naturally, to this it would be answered + that the salt pillar was no more corporeal than the ordinary materials of + the human body, and that it had been made miraculously immortal, and "with + God all things are possible." Thus were opened long vistas of theological + discussion.(434) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (434) For a brief statement of the main arguments for and against the +idea that the soul of Lot's wife remained within the salt statue, see +Cornelius a Lapide, Commentarius in Pentateuchum, Antwerp, 1697, chap. +xix. +</pre> + <p> + As we enter the sixteenth century the Dead Sea myths, and especially the + legends of Lot's wife, are still growing. In 1507 Father Anselm of the + Minorites declares that the sea sometimes covers the feet of the statue, + sometimes the legs, sometimes the whole body. + </p> + <p> + In 1555, Gabriel Giraudet, priest at Puy, journeyed through Palestine. His + faith was robust, and his attitude toward the myths of the Dead Sea is + seen by his declaration that its waters are so foul that one can smell + them at a distance of three leagues; that straw, hay, or feathers thrown + into them will sink, but that iron and other metals will float; that + criminals have been kept in them three or four days and could not drown. + As to Lot's wife, he says that he found her "lying there, her back toward + heaven, converted into salt stone; for I touched her, scratched her, and + put a piece of her into my mouth, and she tasted salt." + </p> + <p> + At the centre of all these legends we see, then, the idea that, though + there were no living beasts in the Dead Sea, the people of the overwhelmed + cities were still living beneath its waters, probably in hell; that there + was life in the salt statue; and that it was still curious regarding its + old neighbours. + </p> + <p> + Hence such travellers in the latter years of the century as Count Albert + of Lowenstein and Prince Nicolas Radziwill are not at all weakened in + faith by failing to find the statue. What the former is capable of + believing is seen by his statement that in a certain cemetery at Cairo + during one night in the year the dead thrust forth their feet, hands, + limbs, and even rise wholly from their graves. + </p> + <p> + There seemed, then, no limit to these pious beliefs. The idea that there + is merit in credulity, with the love of myth-making and miracle-mongering, + constantly made them larger. Nor did the Protestant Reformation diminish + them at first; it rather strengthened them and fixed them more firmly in + the popular mind. They seemed destined to last forever. How they were thus + strengthened at first, under Protestantism, and how they were finally + dissolved away in the atmosphere of scientific thought, will now be + shown.(435) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (435) For Father Anselm, see his Descriptio Terrae Sanctae, in H. +Canisius, Thesaurus Monument Eccles., Basnage edition, Amsterdam, 1725, +vol. iv, p. 788. For Giraudet, see his Discours du Voyage d'Outre-Mer, +Paris, 1585, p. 56a. For Radziwill and Lowenstein, see the Reyssbuch, +especially p. 198a. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0078" id="link2H_4_0078"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III. POST-REFORMATION CULMINATION OF THE DEAD SEA LEGENDS.—BEGINNINGS + </h2> + <p> + OF A HEALTHFUL SCEPTICISM. + </p> + <p> + The first effect of the Protestant Reformation was to popularize the older + Dead Sea legends, and to make the public mind still more receptive for the + newer ones. + </p> + <p> + Luther's great pictorial Bible, so powerful in fixing the ideas of the + German people, showed by very striking engravings all three of these + earlier myths—the destruction of the cities by fire from heaven, the + transformation of Lot's wife, and the vile origin of the hated Moabites + and Ammonites; and we find the salt statue, especially, in this and other + pictorial Bibles, during generation after generation. + </p> + <p> + Catholic peoples also held their own in this display of faith. About 1517 + Francois Regnault published at Paris a compilation on Palestine enriched + with woodcuts: in this the old Dead Sea legend of the "serpent Tyrus" + reappears embellished, and with it various other new versions of old + stories. Five years later Bartholomew de Salignac travels in the Holy + Land, vouches for the continued existence of the Lot's wife statue, and + gives new life to an old marvel by insisting that the sacred waters of the + Jordan are not really poured into the infernal basin of the Dead Sea, but + that they are miraculously absorbed by the earth. + </p> + <p> + These ideas were not confined to the people at large; we trace them among + scholars. + </p> + <p> + In 1581, Bunting, a North German professor and theologian, published his + Itinerary of Holy Scripture, and in this the Dead Sea and Lot legends + continue to increase. He tells us that the water of the sea "changes three + times every day"; that it "spits forth fire" that it throws up "on high" + great foul masses which "burn like pitch" and "swim about like huge oxen"; + that the statue of Lot's wife is still there, and that it shines like + salt. + </p> + <p> + In 1590, Christian Adrichom, a Dutch theologian, published his famous work + on sacred geography. He does not insist upon the Dead Sea legends + generally, but declares that the statue of Lot's wife is still in + existence, and on his map he gives a picture of her standing at Usdum. + </p> + <p> + Nor was it altogether safe to dissent from such beliefs. Just as, under + the papal sway, men of science were severely punished for wrong views of + the physical geography of the earth in general, so, when Calvin decided to + burn Servetus, he included in his indictment for heresy a charge that + Servetus, in his edition of Ptolemy, had made unorthodox statements + regarding the physical geography of Palestine.(436) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (436) For biblical engravings showing Lot's wife transformed into a +salt statue, etc., see Luther's Bible, 1534, p. xi; also the pictorial +Electoral Bible; also Merian's Icones Biblicae of 1625; also the +frontpiece of the Luther Bible published at Nuremberg in 1708; also +Scheuchzer's Kupfer-Bibel, Augsburg, 1731, Tab. lxxx. For the account of +the Dead Sea serpent "Tyrus," etc., see La Grande Voyage de Hierusalem, +Paris (1517?), p. xxi. For De Salignac's assertion regarding the salt +pillar and suggestion regarding the absorption of the Jordan before +reaching the Dead Sea, see his Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae, Magdeburg, +1593, SS 34 and 35. For Bunting, see his Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae, +Magdeburg, 1589, pp. 78, 79. For Andrichom's picture of the salt statue, +see map, p. 38, and text, p. 205, of his Theatrum Terrae Sanctae, 1613. +For Calvin and Servetus, see Willis, Servetus and Calvin, pp. 96, 307; +also the Servetus edition of Ptolemy. +</pre> + <p> + Protestants and Catholics vied with each other in the making of new myths. + Thus, in his Most Devout Journey, published in 1608, Jean Zvallart, Mayor + of Ath in Hainault, confesses himself troubled by conflicting stories + about the salt statue, but declares himself sound in the faith that "some + vestige of it still remains," and makes up for his bit of freethinking by + adding a new mythical horror to the region—"crocodiles," which, with + the serpents and the "foul odour of the sea," prevented his visit to the + salt mountains. + </p> + <p> + In 1615 Father Jean Boucher publishes the first of many editions of his + Sacred Bouquet of the Holy Land. He depicts the horrors of the Dead Sea in + a number of striking antitheses, and among these is the statement that it + is made of mud rather than of water, that it soils whatever is put into + it, and so corrupts the land about it that not a blade of grass grows in + all that region. + </p> + <p> + In the same spirit, thirteen years later, the Protestant Christopher + Heidmann publishes his Palaestina, in which he speaks of a fluid + resembling blood oozing from the rocks about the Dead Sea, and cites + authorities to prove that the statue of Lot's wife still exists and gives + signs of life. + </p> + <p> + Yet, as we near the end of the sixteenth century, some evidences of a + healthful and fruitful scepticism begin to appear. + </p> + <p> + The old stream of travellers, commentators, and preachers, accepting + tradition and repeating what they have been told, flows on; but here and + there we are refreshed by the sight of a man who really begins to think + and look for himself. + </p> + <p> + First among these is the French naturalist Pierre Belon. As regards the + ordinary wonders, he had the simple faith of his time. Among a multitude + of similar things, he believed that he saw the stones on which the + disciples were sleeping during the prayer of Christ; the stone on which + the Lord sat when he raised Lazarus from the dead; the Lord's footprints + on the stone from which he ascended into heaven; and, most curious of all, + "the stone which the builders rejected." Yet he makes some advance on his + predecessors, since he shows in one passage that he had thought out the + process by which the simpler myths of Palestine were made. For, between + Bethlehem and Jerusalem, he sees a field covered with small pebbles, and + of these he says: "The common people tell you that a man was once sowing + peas there, when Our Lady passed that way and asked him what he was doing; + the man answered 'I am sowing pebbles' and straightway all the peas were + changed into these little stones." + </p> + <p> + His ascribing belief in this explanatory transformation myth to the + "common people" marks the faint dawn of a new epoch. + </p> + <p> + Typical also of this new class is the German botanist Leonhard Rauwolf. He + travels through Palestine in 1575, and, though devout and at times + credulous, notes comparatively few of the old wonders, while he makes + thoughtful and careful mention of things in nature that he really saw; he + declines to use the eyes of the monks, and steadily uses his own to good + purpose. + </p> + <p> + As we go on in the seventeenth century, this current of new thought is yet + more evident; a habit of observing more carefully and of comparing + observations had set in; the great voyages of discovery by Columbus, Vasco + da Gama, Magellan, and others were producing their effect; and this effect + was increased by the inductive philosophy of Bacon, the reasonings of + Descartes, and the suggestions of Montaigne. + </p> + <p> + So evident was this current that, as far back as the early days of the + century, a great theologian, Quaresmio of Lodi, had made up his mind to + stop it forever. In 1616, therefore, he began his ponderous work entitled + The Historical, Theological, and Moral Explanation of the Holy Land. He + laboured upon it for nine years, gave nine years more to perfecting it, + and then put it into the hands of the great publishing house of Plantin at + Antwerp: they were four years in printing and correcting it, and when it + at last appeared it seemed certain to establish the theological view of + the Holy Land for all time. While taking abundant care of other myths + which he believed sanctified by Holy Scripture, Quaresmio devoted himself + at great length to the Dead Sea, but above all to the salt statue; and he + divides his chapter on it into three parts, each headed by a question: + First, "HOW was Lot's wife changed into a statue of salt?" secondly, + "WHERE was she thus transformed?" and, thirdly, "DOES THAT STATUE STILL + EXIST?" Through each of these divisions he fights to the end all who are + inclined to swerve in the slightest degree from the orthodox opinion. He + utterly refuses to compromise with any modern theorists. To all such he + says, "The narration of Moses is historical and is to be received in its + natural sense, and no right-thinking man will deny this." To those who + favoured the figurative interpretation he says, "With such reasonings any + passage of Scripture can be denied." + </p> + <p> + As to the spot where the miracle occurred, he discusses four places, but + settles upon the point where the picture of the statue is given in + Adrichom's map. As to the continued existence of the statue, he plays with + the opposing view as a cat fondles a mouse; and then shows that the most + revered ancient authorities, venerable men still living, and the Bedouins, + all agree that it is still in being. Throughout the whole chapter his + thoroughness in scriptural knowledge and his profundity in logic are only + excelled by his scorn for those theologians who were willing to yield + anything to rationalism. + </p> + <p> + So powerful was this argument that it seemed to carry everything before + it, not merely throughout the Roman obedience, but among the most eminent + theologians of Protestantism. + </p> + <p> + As regards the Roman Church, we may take as a type the missionary priest + Eugene Roger, who, shortly after the appearance of Quaresmio's book, + published his own travels in Palestine. He was an observant man, and his + work counts among those of real value; but the spirit of Quaresmio had + taken possession of him fully. His work is prefaced with a map showing the + points of most importance in scriptural history, and among these he + identifies the place where Samson slew the thousand Philistines with the + jawbone of an ass, and where he hid the gates of Gaza; the cavern which + Adam and Eve inhabited after their expulsion from paradise; the spot where + Balaam's ass spoke; the tree on which Absalom was hanged; the place where + Jacob wrestled with the angel; the steep place where the swine possessed + of devils plunged into the sea; the spot where the prophet Elijah was + taken up in a chariot of fire; and, of course, the position of the salt + statue which was once Lot's wife. He not only indicates places on land, + but places in the sea; thus he shows where Jonah was swallowed by the + whale, and "where St. Peter caught one hundred and fifty-three fishes." + </p> + <p> + As to the Dead Sea miracles generally, he does not dwell on them at great + length; he evidently felt that Quaresmio had exhausted the subject; but he + shows largely the fruits of Quaresmio's teaching in other matters. + </p> + <p> + So, too, we find the thoughts and words of Quaresmio echoing afar through + the German universities, in public disquisitions, dissertations, and + sermons. The great Bible commentators, both Catholic and Protestant, + generally agreed in accepting them. + </p> + <p> + But, strong as this theological theory was, we find that, as time went on, + it required to be braced somewhat, and in 1692 Wedelius, Professor of + Medicine at Jena, chose as the subject of his inaugural address The + Physiology of the Destruction of Sodom and of the Statue of Salt. + </p> + <p> + It is a masterly example of "sanctified science." At great length he + dwells on the characteristics of sulphur, salt, and thunderbolts; mixes up + scriptural texts, theology, and chemistry after a most bewildering + fashion; and finally comes to the conclusion that a thunderbolt, flung by + the Almighty, calcined the body of Lot's wife, and at the same time + vitrified its particles into a glassy mass looking like salt.(437) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (437) For Zvallart, see his Tres-devot Voyage de Ierusalem, Antwerp, +1608, book iv, chapter viii. His journey was made twenty years before. +For Father Boucher, see his Bouquet de la Terre Saincte, Paris, 1622, +pp. 447, 448. For Heidmann, see his Palaestina, 1689, pp. 58-62. For +Belon's credulity in matters referred to, see his Observations de +Plusieurs Singularitez, etc., Paris, 1553, pp. 141-144; and for the +legend of the peas changed into pebbles, p. 145; see also Lartet in De +Luynes, vol. iii, p. 11. For Rauwolf, see the Reyssbuch, and Tobler, +Bibliographia. For a good acoount of the influence of Montaigne in +developing French scepticism, see Prevost-Paradol's study on Montaigne +prefixed to the Le Clerc edition of the Essays, Paris, 1865; also the +well-known passages in Lecky's Rationalism in Europe. For Quaresmio +I have consulted both the Plantin edition of 1639 and the superb new +Venice edition of 1880-'82. The latter, though less prized by book +fanciers, is the more valuable, since it contains some very interesting +recent notes. For the above discussion, see Plantin edition, vol. ii, +pp. 758 et seq., and Venice edition, vol. ii, pp. 572-574. As to the +effect of Quaresmio on the Protestant Church, see Wedelius, De Statua +Salis, Jenae, 1692, pp.6, 7, and elsewhere. For Eugene Roger, see his La +Terre Saincte, Paris, 1664; the map, showing various sites referred to, +is in the preface; and for basilisks, salamanders, etc., see pp. 89-92, +139, 218, and elsewhere. +</pre> + <p> + Not only were these views demonstrated, so far as theologico-scientific + reasoning could demonstrate anything, but it was clearly shown, by a + continuous chain of testimony from the earliest ages, that the salt statue + at Usdum had been recognised as the body of Lot's wife by Jews, + Mohammedans, and the universal Christian Church, "always, everywhere, and + by all." + </p> + <p> + Under the influence of teachings like these—and of the winter rains—new + wonders began to appear at the salt pillar. In 1661 the Franciscan monk + Zwinner published his travels in Palestine, and gave not only most of the + old myths regarding the salt statue, but a new one, in some respects more + striking than any of the old—for he had heard that a dog, also + transformed into salt, was standing by the side of Lot's wife. + </p> + <p> + Even the more solid Benedictine scholars were carried away, and we find in + the Sacred History by Prof. Mezger, of the order of St. Benedict, + published in 1700, a renewal of the declaration that the salt statue must + be a "PERPETUAL memorial." + </p> + <p> + But it was soon evident that the scientific current was still working + beneath this ponderous mass of theological authority. A typical evidence + of this we find in 1666 in the travels of Doubdan, a canon of St. Denis. + As to the Dead Sea, he says that he saw no smoke, no clouds, and no + "black, sticky water"; as to the statue of Lot's wife, he says, "The + moderns do not believe so easily that she has lasted so long"; then, as if + alarmed at his own boldness, he concedes that the sea MAY be black and + sticky in the middle; and from Lot's wife he escapes under cover of some + pious generalities. Four years later another French ecclesiastic, Jacques + Goujon, referring in his published travels to the legends of the salt + pillar, says: "People may believe these stories as much as they choose; I + did not see it, nor did I go there." So, too, in 1697, Morison, a + dignitary of the French Church, having travelled in Palestine, confesses + that, as to the story of the pillar of salt, he has difficulty in + believing it. + </p> + <p> + The same current is observed working still more strongly in the travels of + the Rev. Henry Maundrell, an English chaplain at Aleppo, who travelled + through Palestine during the same year. He pours contempt over the legends + of the Dead Sea in general: as to the story that birds could not fly over + it, he says that he saw them flying there; as to the utter absence of life + in the sea, he saw small shells in it; he saw no traces of any buried + cities; and as to the stories regarding the statue of Lot's wife and the + proposal to visit it, he says, "Nor could we give faith enough to these + reports to induce us to go on such an errand." + </p> + <p> + The influence of the Baconian philosophy on his mind is very clear; for, + in expressing his disbelief in the Dead Sea apples, with their contents of + ashes, he says that he saw none, and he cites Lord Bacon in support of + scepticism on this and similar points. + </p> + <p> + But the strongest effect of this growing scepticism is seen near the end + of that century, when the eminent Dutch commentator Clericus (Le Clerc) + published his commentary on the Pentateuch and his Dissertation on the + Statue of Salt. + </p> + <p> + At great length he brings all his shrewdness and learning to bear against + the whole legend of the actual transformation of Lot's wife and the + existence of the salt pillar, and ends by saying that "the whole story is + due to the vanity of some and the credulity of more." + </p> + <p> + In the beginning of the eighteenth century we find new tributaries to this + rivulet of scientific thought. In 1701 Father Felix Beaugrand dismisses + the Dead Sea legends and the salt statue very curtly and dryly—expressing + not his belief in it, but a conventional wish to believe. + </p> + <p> + In 1709 a scholar appeared in another part of Europe and of different + faith, who did far more than any of his predecessors to envelop the Dead + Sea legends in an atmosphere of truth—Adrian Reland, professor at + the University of Utrecht. His work on Palestine is a monument of patient + scholarship, having as its nucleus a love of truth as truth: there is no + irreverence in him, but he quietly brushes away a great mass of myths and + legends: as to the statue of Lot's wife, he treats it warily, but applies + the comparative method to it with killing effect, by showing that the + story of its miraculous renewal is but one among many of its kind.(438) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (438) For Zwinner, see his Blumenbuch des Heyligen Landes, Munchen, +1661, p. 454. For Mezger, see his Sacra Historia, Augsburg, 1700, p. 30. +For Doubdan, see his Voyage de la Terre-Sainte, Paris, 1670, pp. 338, +339; also Tobler and Gage's Ritter. For Goujon, see his Histoire et +Voyage de la Terre Saincte, Lyons, 1670, p. 230, etc. For Morison, +see his Voyage, book ii, pp. 516, 517. For Maundrell, see in Wright's +Collection, pp. 383 et seq. For Clericus, see his Dissertation de Salis +Statua, in his Pentateuch, edition of 1696, pp. 327 et seq. For Father +Beaugrand, see his Voyage, Paris, 1701, pp. 137 et seq. For Reland, see +his Palaestina, Utrecht, 1714, vol. i, pp. 61-254, passim. +</pre> + <p> + Yet to superficial observers the old current of myth and marvel seemed to + flow into the eighteenth century as strong as ever, and of this we may + take two typical evidences. The first of these is the Pious Pilgrimage of + Vincent Briemle. His journey was made about 1710; and his work, brought + out under the auspices of a high papal functionary some years later, in a + heavy quarto, gave new life to the stories of the hellish character of the + Dead Sea, and especially to the miraculous renewal of the salt statue. + </p> + <p> + In 172O came a still more striking effort to maintain the old belief in + the north of Europe, for in that year the eminent theologian Masius + published his great treatise on The Conversion of Lot's Wife into a Statue + of Salt. + </p> + <p> + Evidently intending that this work should be the last word on this subject + in Germany, as Quaresmio had imagined that his work would be the last in + Italy, he develops his subject after the high scholastic and theologic + manner. Calling attention first to the divine command in the New + Testament, "Remember Lot's wife," he argues through a long series of + chapters. In the ninth of these he discusses "the impelling cause" of her + looking back, and introduces us to the question, formerly so often treated + by theologians, whether the soul of Lot's wife was finally saved. Here we + are glad to learn that the big, warm heart of Luther lifted him above the + common herd of theologians, and led him to declare that she was "a + faithful and saintly woman," and that she certainly was not eternally + damned. In justice to the Roman Church also it should be said that several + of her most eminent commentators took a similar view, and insisted that + the sin of Lot's wife was venial, and therefore, at the worst, could only + subject her to the fires of purgatory. + </p> + <p> + The eleventh chapter discusses at length the question HOW she was + converted into salt, and, mentioning many theological opinions, dwells + especially upon the view of Rivetus, that a thunderbolt, made up + apparently of fire, sulphur, and salt, wrought her transformation at the + same time that it blasted the land; and he bases this opinion upon the + twenty-ninth chapter of Deuteronomy and the one hundred and seventh Psalm. + </p> + <p> + Later, Masius presents a sacred scientific theory that "saline particles + entered into her until her whole body was infected"; and with this he + connects another piece of sanctified science, to the effect that "stagnant + bile" may have rendered the surface of her body "entirely shining, bitter, + dry, and deformed." + </p> + <p> + Finally, he comes to the great question whether the salt pillar is still + in existence. On this he is full and fair. On one hand he allows that + Luther thought that it was involved in the general destruction of Sodom + and Gomorrah, and he cites various travellers who had failed to find it; + but, on the other hand, he gives a long chain of evidence to show that it + continued to exist: very wisely he reminds the reader that the positive + testimony of those who have seen it must outweigh the negative testimony + of those who have not, and he finally decides that the salt statue is + still in being. + </p> + <p> + No doubt a work like this produced a considerable effect in Protestant + countries; indeed, this effect seems evident as far off as England, for, + in 172O, we find in Dean Prideaux's Old and New Testament connected a map + on which the statue of salt is carefully indicated. So, too, in Holland, + in the Sacred Geography published at Utrecht in 1758 by the theologian + Bachiene, we find him, while showing many signs of rationalism, evidently + inclined to the old views as to the existence of the salt pillar; but just + here comes a curious evidence of the real direction of the current of + thought through the century, for, nine years later, in the German + translation of Bachiene's work we find copious notes by the translator in + a far more rationalistic spirit; indeed, we see the dawn of the inevitable + day of compromise, for we now have, instead of the old argument that the + divine power by one miraculous act changed Lot's wife into a salt pillar, + the suggestion that she was caught in a shower of sulphur and saltpetre, + covered by it, and that the result was a lump, which in a general way IS + CALLED in our sacred books "a pillar of salt."(439) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (439) For Briemle, see his Andachtige Pilgerfahrt, p. 129. For Masius, +see his De Uxore Lothi in Statuam Salis Conversa, Hafniae, 1720, +especially pages 29-31. For Dean Prideaux, see his Old and New Testament +connected in the History of the Jews, 1720, map at page 7. For Bachiene, +see his Historische und geographische Beschreibung von Palaestina, +Leipzig, 1766, vol. i, pp. 118-120, and notes. +</pre> + <p> + But, from the middle of the eighteenth century, the new current sets + through Christendom with ever-increasing strength. Very interesting is it + to compare the great scriptural commentaries of the middle of this century + with those published a century earlier. + </p> + <p> + Of the earlier ones we may take Matthew Poole's Synopsis as a type: as + authorized by royal decree in 1667 it contains very substantial arguments + for the pious belief in the statue. Of the later ones we may take the + edition of the noted commentary of the Jesuit Tirinus seventy years later: + while he feels bound to present the authorities, he evidently endeavours + to get rid of the subject as speedily as possible under cover of + conventionalities; of the spirit of Quaresmio he shows no trace.(440) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (440) For Poole (Polus) see his Synopsis, 1669, p. 179; and for Titinus, +the Lyons edition of his Commentary, 1736, p. 10. +</pre> + <p> + About 1760 came a striking evidence of the strength of this new current. + The Abate Mariti then published his book upon the Holy Land; and of this + book, by an Italian ecclesiastic, the most eminent of German + bibliographers in this field says that it first broke a path for critical + study of the Holy Land. Mariti is entirely sceptical as to the sinking of + the valley of Siddim and the overwhelming of the cities. He speaks kindly + of a Capuchin Father who saw everywhere at the Dead Sea traces of the + divine malediction, while he himself could not see them, and says, "It is + because a Capuchin carries everywhere the five senses of faith, while I + only carry those of nature." He speaks of "the lies of Josephus," and + makes merry over "the rude and shapeless block" which the guide assured + him was the statue of Lot's wife, explaining the want of human form in the + salt pillar by telling him that this complete metamorphosis was part of + her punishment. + </p> + <p> + About twenty years later, another remarkable man, Volney, broaches the + subject in what was then known as the "philosophic" spirit. Between the + years 1783 and 1785 he made an extensive journey through the Holy Land and + published a volume of travels which by acuteness of thought and vigour of + style secured general attention. In these, myth and legend were thrown + aside, and we have an account simply dictated by the love of truth as + truth. He, too, keeps the torch of science burning by applying his + geological knowledge to the regions which he traverses. + </p> + <p> + As we look back over the eighteenth century we see mingled with the new + current of thought, and strengthening it, a constantly increasing stream + of more strictly scientific observation and reflection. + </p> + <p> + To review it briefly: in the very first years of the century Maraldi + showed the Paris Academy of Sciences fossil fishes found in the Lebanon + region; a little later, Cornelius Bruyn, in the French edition of his + Eastern travels, gave well-drawn representations of fossil fishes and + shells, some of them from the region of the Dead Sea; about the middle of + the century Richard Pococke, Bishop of Meath, and Korte of Altona made + more statements of the same sort; and toward the close of the century, as + we have seen, Volney gave still more of these researches, with + philosophical deductions from them. + </p> + <p> + The result of all this was that there gradually dawned upon thinking men + the conviction that, for ages before the appearance of man on the planet, + and during all the period since his appearance, natural laws have been + steadily in force in Palestine as elsewhere; this conviction obliged men + to consider other than supernatural causes for the phenomena of the Dead + Sea, and myth and marvel steadily shrank in value. + </p> + <p> + But at the very threshold of the nineteenth century Chateaubriand came + into the field, and he seemed to banish the scientific spirit, though what + he really did was to conceal it temporarily behind the vapours of his + rhetoric. The time was propitious for him. It was the period of reaction + after the French Revolution, when what was called religion was again in + fashion, and when even atheists supported it as a good thing for common + people: of such an epoch Chateaubriand, with his superficial information, + thin sentiment, and showy verbiage, was the foreordained prophet. His + enemies were wont to deny that he ever saw the Holy Land; whether he did + or not, he added nothing to real knowledge, but simply threw a momentary + glamour over the regions he described, and especially over the Dead Sea. + The legend of Lot's wife he carefully avoided, for he knew too well the + danger of ridicule in France. + </p> + <p> + As long as the Napoleonic and Bourbon reigns lasted, and indeed for some + time afterward, this kind of dealing with the Holy Land was fashionable, + and we have a long series of men, especially of Frenchmen, who evidently + received their impulse from Chateaubriand. + </p> + <p> + About 1831 De Geramb, Abbot of La Trappe, evidently a very noble and + devout spirit, sees vapour above the Dead Sea, but stretches the truth a + little—speaking of it as "vapour or smoke." He could not find the + salt statue, and complains of the "diversity of stories regarding it." The + simple physical cause of this diversity—the washing out of different + statues in different years—never occurs to him; but he comforts + himself with the scriptural warrant for the metamorphosis.(441) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (441) For Mariti, see his Voyage, etc., vol. ii, pp. 352-356. For +Tobler's high opinion of him, see the Bibliographia, pp. 132, 133. For +Volney, see his Voyage en Syrie et Egypte, Paris, 1807, vol. i, pp. +308 et seq.; also, for a statement of contributions of the eighteenth +century to geology, Lartet in De Luynes's Mer Morte, vol. iii, p. 12. +For Cornelius Bruyn, see French edition of his works, 1714 (in which his +name is given as "Le Brun"), especially for representations of fossils, +pp. 309, 375. For Chateaubriand, see his Voyage, etc., vol. ii, part +iii. For De Geramb, see his Voyage, vol. ii, pp. 45-47. +</pre> + <p> + But to the honour of scientific men and scientific truth it should be said + that even under Napoleon and the Bourbons there were men who continued to + explore, observe, and describe with the simple love of truth as truth, and + in spite of the probability that their researches would be received during + their lifetime with contempt and even hostility, both in church and state. + </p> + <p> + The pioneer in this work of the nineteenth century was the German + naturalist Ulrich Seetzen. He began his main investigation in 1806, and + soon his learning, courage, and honesty threw a flood of new light into + the Dead Sea questions. + </p> + <p> + In this light, myth and legend faded more rapidly than ever. Typical of + his method is his examination of the Dead Sea fruit. He found, on reaching + Palestine, that Josephus's story regarding it, which had been accepted for + nearly two thousand years, was believed on all sides; more than this, he + found that the original myth had so grown that a multitude of respectable + people at Bethlehem and elsewhere assured him that not only apples, but + pears, pomegranates, figs, lemons, and many other fruits which grow upon + the shores of the Dead Sea, though beautiful to look upon, were filled + with ashes. These good people declared to Seetzen that they had seen these + fruits, and that, not long before, a basketful of them which had been sent + to a merchant of Jaffa had turned to ashes. + </p> + <p> + Seetzen was evidently perplexed by this mass of testimony and naturally + anxious to examine these fruits. On arriving at the sea he began to look + for them, and the guide soon showed him the "apples." These he found to be + simply an asclepia, which had been described by Linnaeus, and which is + found in the East Indies, Arabia, Egypt, Jamaica, and elsewhere—the + "ashes" being simply seeds. He looked next for the other fruits, and the + guide soon found for him the "lemons": these he discovered to be a species + of solanum found in other parts of Palestine and elsewhere, and the seeds + in these were the famous "cinders." He looked next for the pears, figs, + and other accursed fruits; but, instead of finding them filled with ashes + and cinders, he found them like the same fruits in other lands, and he + tells us that he ate the figs with much pleasure. + </p> + <p> + So perished a myth which had been kept alive two thousand years,—partly + by modes of thought natural to theologians, partly by the self-interest of + guides, and partly by the love of marvel-mongering among travellers. + </p> + <p> + The other myths fared no better. As to the appearance of the sea, he found + its waters not "black and sticky," but blue and transparent; he found no + smoke rising from the abyss, but tells us that sunlight and cloud and + shore were pleasantly reflected from the surface. As to Lot's wife, he + found no salt pillar which had been a careless woman, but the Arabs showed + him many boulders which had once been wicked men. + </p> + <p> + His work was worthily continued by a long succession of true + investigators,—among them such travellers or geographers as + Burckhardt, Irby, Mangles, Fallmerayer, and Carl von Raumer: by men like + these the atmosphere of myth and legend was steadily cleared away; as a + rule, they simply forgot Lot's wife altogether. + </p> + <p> + In this noble succession should be mentioned an American theologian, Dr. + Edward Robinson, professor at New York. Beginning about 1826, he devoted + himself for thirty years to the thorough study of the geography of + Palestine, and he found a worthy coadjutor in another American divine, Dr. + Eli Smith. Neither of these men departed openly from the old traditions: + that would have cost a heart-breaking price—the loss of all further + opportunity to carry on their researches. Robinson did not even think it + best to call attention to the mythical character of much on which his + predecessors had insisted; he simply brought in, more and more, the dry, + clear atmosphere of the love of truth for truth's sake, and, in this, + myths and legends steadily disappeared. By doing this he rendered a far + greater service to real Christianity than any other theologian had ever + done in this field. + </p> + <p> + Very characteristic is his dealing with the myth of Lot's wife. Though + more than once at Usdum,—though giving valuable information + regarding the sea, shore, and mountains there, he carefully avoids all + mention of the salt pillar and of the legend which arose from it. In this + he set an example followed by most of the more thoughtful religious + travellers since his time. Very significant is it to see the New Testament + injunction, "Remember Lot's wife," so utterly forgotten. These later + investigators seem never to have heard of it; and this constant + forgetfulness shows the change which had taken place in the enlightened + thinking of the world. + </p> + <p> + But in the year 1848 came an episode very striking in its character and + effect. + </p> + <p> + At that time, the war between the United States and Mexico having closed, + Lieutenant Lynch, of the United States Navy, found himself in the port of + Vera Cruz, commanding an old hulk, the Supply. Looking about for something + to do, it occurred to him to write to the Secretary of the Navy asking + permission to explore the Dead Sea. Under ordinary circumstances the + proposal would doubtless have been strangled with red tape; but, + fortunately, the Secretary at that time was Mr. John Y. Mason, of + Virginia. Mr. Mason was famous for his good nature. Both at Washington and + at Paris, where he was afterward minister, this predominant trait has left + a multitude of amusing traditions; it was of him that Senator Benton said, + "To be supremely happy he must have his paunch full of oysters and his + hands full of cards." + </p> + <p> + The Secretary granted permission, but evidently gave the matter not + another thought. As a result, came an expedition the most comical and one + of the most rich in results to be found in American annals. Never was + anything so happy-go-lucky. Lieutenant Lynch started with his hulk, with + hardly an instrument save those ordinarily found on shipboard, and with a + body of men probably the most unfit for anything like scientific + investigation ever sent on such an errand; fortunately, he picked up a + young instructor in mathematics, Mr. Anderson, and added to his apparatus + two strong iron boats. + </p> + <p> + Arriving, after a tedious voyage, on the coast of Asia Minor, he set to + work. He had no adequate preparation in general history, archaeology, or + the physical sciences; but he had his American patriotism, energy, pluck, + pride, and devotion to duty, and these qualities stood him in good stead. + With great labour he got the iron boats across the country. Then the tug + of war began. First of all investigators, he forced his way through the + whole length of the river Jordan and from end to end of the Dead Sea. + There were constant difficulties—geographical, climatic, and + personal; but Lynch cut through them all. He was brave or shrewd, as there + was need. Anderson proved an admirable helper, and together they made + surveys of distances, altitudes, depths, and sundry simple investigations + in a geological, mineralogical, and chemical way. Much was poorly done, + much was left undone, but the general result was most honourable both to + Lynch and Anderson; and Secretary Mason found that his easy-going + patronage of the enterprise was the best act of his official life. + </p> + <p> + The results of this expedition on public opinion were most curious. Lynch + was no scholar in any sense; he had travelled little, and thought less on + the real questions underlying the whole investigation; as to the + difference in depth of the two parts of the lake, he jumped—with a + sailor's disregard of logic—to the conclusion that it somehow proved + the mythical account of the overwhelming of the cities, and he indulged in + reflections of a sort probably suggested by his recollections of American + Sunday-schools. + </p> + <p> + Especially noteworthy is his treatment of the legend of Lot's wife. He + found the pillar of salt. It happened to be at that period a circular + column of friable salt rock, about forty feet high; yet, while he accepts + every other old myth, he treats the belief that this was once the wife of + Lot as "a superstition." One little circumstance added enormously to the + influence of this book, for, as a frontispiece, he inserted a picture of + the salt column. It was delineated in rather a poetic manner: light + streamed upon it, heavy clouds hung above it, and, as a background, were + ranged buttresses of salt rock furrowed and channelled out by the winter + rains: this salt statue picture was spread far and wide, and in thousands + of country pulpits and Sunday-schools it was shown as a tribute of science + to Scripture. + </p> + <p> + Nor was this influence confined to American Sunday-school children: Lynch + had innocently set a trap into which several European theologians + stumbled. One of these was Dr. Lorenz Gratz, Vicar-General of Augsburg, a + theological professor. In the second edition of his Theatre of the Holy + Scriptures, published in 1858, he hails Lynch's discovery of the salt + pillar with joy, forgets his allusion to the old theory regarding it as a + superstition, and does not stop to learn that this was one of a succession + of statues washed out yearly by the rains, but accepts it as the originaL + Lot's wife. + </p> + <p> + The French churchmen suffered most. About two years after Lynch, De Saulcy + visited the Dead Sea to explore it thoroughly, evidently in the interest + of sacred science—and of his own promotion. Of the modest + thoroughness of Robinson there is no trace in his writings. He promptly + discovered the overwhelmed cities, which no one before or since has ever + found, poured contempt on other investigators, and threw over his whole + work an air of piety. But, unfortunately, having a Frenchman's dread of + ridicule, he attempted to give a rationalistic explanation of what he + calls "the enormous needles of salt washed out by the winter rain," and + their connection with the Lot's wife myth, and declared his firm belief + that she, "being delayed by curiosity or terror, was crushed by a rock + which rolled down from the mountain, and when Lot and his children turned + about they saw at the place where she had been only the rock of salt which + covered her body." + </p> + <p> + But this would not do at all, and an eminent ecclesiastic privately and + publicly expostulated with De Saulcy—very naturally declaring that + "it was not Lot who wrote the book of Genesis." + </p> + <p> + The result was that another edition of De Saulcy's work was published by a + Church Book Society, with the offending passage omitted; but a passage was + retained really far more suggestive of heterodoxy, and this was an Arab + legend accounting for the origin of certain rocks near the Dead Sea + curiously resembling salt formations. This in effect ran as follows: + </p> + <p> + "Abraham, the friend of God, having come here one day with his mule to buy + salt, the salt-workers impudently told him that they had no salt to sell, + whereupon the patriarch said: 'Your words are, true, you have no salt to + sell,' and instantly the salt of this whole region was transformed into + stone, or rather into a salt which has lost its savour." + </p> + <p> + Nothing could be more sure than this story to throw light into the mental + and moral process by which the salt pillar myth was originally created. + </p> + <p> + In the years 1864 and 1865 came an expedition on a much more imposing + scale: that of the Duc de Luynes. His knowledge of archaeology and his + wealth were freely devoted to working the mine which Lynch had opened, + and, taking with him an iron vessel and several savants, he devoted + himself especially to finding the cities of the Dead Sea, and to giving + less vague accounts of them than those of De Saulcy. But he was + disappointed, and honest enough to confess his disappointment. So vanished + one of the most cherished parts of the legend. + </p> + <p> + But worse remained behind. In the orthodox duke's company was an acute + geologist, Monsieur Lartet, who in due time made an elaborate report, + which let a flood of light into the whole region. + </p> + <p> + The Abbe Richard had been rejoicing the orthodox heart of France by + exhibiting some prehistoric flint implements as the knives which Joshua + had made for circumcision. By a truthful statement Monsieur Lartet set all + France laughing at the Abbe, and then turned to the geology of the Dead + Sea basin. While he conceded that man may have seen some volcanic crisis + there, and may have preserved a vivid remembrance of the vapour then + rising, his whole argument showed irresistibly that all the phenomena of + the region are due to natural causes, and that, so far from a sudden + rising of the lake above the valley within historic times, it has been for + ages steadily subsiding. + </p> + <p> + Since Balaam was called by Balak to curse his enemies, and "blessed them + altogether," there has never been a more unexpected tribute to truth. + </p> + <p> + Even the salt pillar at Usdum, as depicted in Lynch's book, aided to + undermine the myth among thinking men; for the background of the picture + showed other pillars of salt in process of formation; and the ultimate + result of all these expeditions was to spread an atmosphere in which myth + and legend became more and more attenuated. + </p> + <p> + To sum up the main points in this work of the nineteenth century: Seetzen, + Robinson, and others had found that a human being could traverse the lake + without being killed by hellish smoke; that the waters gave forth no + odours; that the fruits of the region were not created full of cinders to + match the desolation of the Dead Sea, but were growths not uncommon in + Asia Minor and elsewhere; in fact, that all the phenomena were due to + natural causes. + </p> + <p> + Ritter and others had shown that all noted features of the Dead Sea and + the surrounding country were to be found in various other lakes and + regions, to which no supernatural cause was ascribed among enlightened + men. Lynch, Van de Velde, Osborne, and others had revealed the fact that + the "pillar of salt" was frequently formed anew by the rains; and Lartet + and other geologists had given a final blow to the myths by making it + clear from the markings on the neighbouring rocks that, instead of a + sudden upheaval of the sea above the valley of Siddim, there had been a + gradual subsidence for ages.(442) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (442) For Seetzen, see his Reisen, edited by Kruse, Berlin, 1854-'59; +for the "Dead Sea Fruits," vol. ii, pp. 231 et seq.; for the appearance +of the sea, etc., p. 243, and elsewhere; for the Arab explanatory +transformation legends, vol. iii, pp. 7, 14, 17. As to similarity of the +"pillars of salt" to columns washed out by rains elsewhere, see Kruse's +commentary in vol. iv, p. 240; also Fallmerayer, vol. i, p. 197. For +Irby and Mangles, see work already cited. For Robinson, see his Biblical +Researches, London,1841; also his Later Biblical Researches, London, +1856. For Lynch, see his Narrative, London, 1849. For Gratz, see his +Schauplatz der Heyl. Schrift, pp. 186, 187. For De Saulcy, see his +Voyage autour de la Mer Morte, Paris, 1853, especially vol. i, p. 252, +and his journal of the early months of 1851, in vol. ii, comparing it +with his work of the same title published in 1858 in the Bibliotheque +Catholique de Voyages et du Romans, vol. i, pp. 78-81. For Lartet, see +his papers read before the Geographical Society at Paris; also citations +in Robinson; but, above all, his elaborate reports which form the +greater part of the second and third volumes of the monumental work +which bears the name of De Luynes, already cited. For exposures of De +Saulcey's credulity and errors, see Van de Velde, Syria and Palestine, +passim; also Canon Tristram's Land of Israel; also De Luynes, passim. +</pre> + <p> + Even before all this evidence was in, a judicial decision had been + pronounced upon the whole question by an authority both Christian and + scientific, from whom there could be no appeal. During the second quarter + of the century Prof. Carl Ritter, of the University of Berlin, began + giving to the world those researches which have placed him at the head of + all geographers ancient or modern, and finally he brought together those + relating to the geography of the Holy Land, publishing them as part of his + great work on the physical geography of the earth. He was a Christian, and + nothing could be more reverent than his treatment of the whole subject; + but his German honesty did not permit him to conceal the truth, and he + simply classed together all the stories of the Dead Sea—old and new—no + matter where found, whether in the sacred books of Jews, Christians, or + Mohammedans, whether in lives of saints or accounts of travellers, as + "myths" and "sagas." + </p> + <p> + From this decision there has never been among intelligent men any appeal. + </p> + <p> + The recent adjustment of orthodox thought to the scientific view of the + Dead Sea legends presents some curious features. As typical we may take + the travels of two German theologians between 1860 and 1870—John + Kranzel, pastor in Munich, and Peter Schegg, lately professor in the + university of that city. + </p> + <p> + The archdiocese of Munich-Freising is one of those in which the attempt to + suppress modern scientific thought has been most steadily carried on. Its + archbishops have constantly shown themselves assiduous in securing + cardinals' hats by thwarting science and by stupefying education. The twin + towers of the old cathedral of Munich have seemed to throw a killing + shadow over intellectual development in that region. Naturally, then, + these two clerical travellers from that diocese did not commit themselves + to clearing away any of the Dead Sea myths; but it is significant that + neither of them follows the example of so many of their clerical + predecessors in defending the salt-pillar legend: they steadily avoid it + altogether. + </p> + <p> + The more recent history of the salt pillar, since Lynch, deserves mention. + It appears that the travellers immediately after him found it shaped by + the storms into a spire; that a year or two later it had utterly + disappeared; and about the year 1870 Prof. Palmer, on visiting the place, + found at some distance from the main salt bed, as he says, "a tall, + isolated needle of rock, which does really bear a curious resemblance to + an Arab woman with a child upon her shoulders." + </p> + <p> + And, finally, Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, the standard work of + reference for English-speaking scholars, makes its concession to the old + belief regarding Sodom and Gomorrah as slight as possible, and the myth of + Lot's wife entirely disappears. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0079" id="link2H_4_0079"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IV. THEOLOGICAL EFFORTS AT COMPROMISE.—TRIUMPH OF THE SCIENTIFIC + VIEW. + </h2> + <p> + The theological effort to compromise with science now came in more + strongly than ever. This effort had been made long before: as we have + seen, it had begun to show itself decidedly as soon as the influence of + the Baconian philosophy was felt. Le Clerc suggested that the shock caused + by the sight of fire from heaven killed Lot's wife instantly and made her + body rigid as a statue. Eichhorn suggested that she fell into a stream of + melted bitumen. Michaelis suggested that her relatives raised a monument + of salt rock to her memory. Friedrichs suggested that she fell into the + sea and that the salt stiffened around her clothing, thus making a statue + of her. Some claimed that a shower of sulphur came down upon her, and that + the word which has been translated "salt" could possibly be translated + "sulphur." Others hinted that the salt by its antiseptic qualities + preserved her body as a mummy. De Saulcy, as we have seen, thought that a + piece of salt rock fell upon her, and very recently Principal Dawson has + ventured the explanation that a flood of salt mud coming from a volcano + incrusted her. + </p> + <p> + But theologians themselves were the first to show the inadequacy of these + explanations. The more rationalistic pointed out the fact that they were + contrary to the sacred text: Von Bohlen, an eminent professor at + Konigsberg, in his sturdy German honesty, declared that the salt pillar + gave rise to the story, and compared the pillar of salt causing this + transformation legend to the rock in Greek mythology which gave rise to + the transformation legend of Niobe. + </p> + <p> + On the other hand, the more severely orthodox protested against such + attempts to explain away the clear statements of Holy Writ. Dom Calmet, + while presenting many of these explanations made as early as his time, + gives us to understand that nearly all theologians adhered to the idea + that Lot's wife was instantly and really changed into salt; and in our own + time, as we shall presently see, have come some very vigorous protests. + </p> + <p> + Similar attempts were made to explain the other ancient legends regarding + the Dead Sea. One of the most recent of these is that the cities of the + plain, having been built with blocks of bituminous rock, were set on fire + by lightning, a contemporary earthquake helping on the work. Still another + is that accumulations of petroleum and inflammable gas escaped through a + fissure, took fire, and so produced the catastrophe.(443) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (443) For Kranzel, see his Reise nach Jerusalem, etc. For Schegg, see +his Gedenkbuch einer Pilgerreise, etc., 1867, chap. xxiv. For Palmer, +see his Desert of the Exodus, vol. ii, pp. 478, 479. For the various +compromises, see works already cited, passim. For Von Bohlen, see +his Genesis, Konigsberg, 1835, pp. 200-213. For Calmet, see his +Dictionarium, etc, Venet., 1766. For very recent compromises, see J. W. +Dawson and Dr. Cunningham Geikie in works cited. +</pre> + <p> + The revolt against such efforts to RECONCILE scientific fact with myth and + legend had become very evident about the middle of the nineteenth century. + In 1851 and 1852 Van de Velde made his journey. He was a most devout man, + but he confessed that the volcanic action at the Dead Sea must have been + far earlier than the catastrophe mentioned in our sacred books, and that + "the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah had nothing to do with this." A few + years later an eminent dignitary of the English Church, Canon Tristram, + doctor of divinity and fellow of the Royal Society, who had explored the + Holy Land thoroughly, after some generalities about miracles, gave up the + whole attempt to make science agree with the myths, and used these words: + "It has been frequently assumed that the district of Usdum and its sister + cities was the result of some tremendous geological catastrophe.... Now, + careful examination by competent geologists, such as Monsieur Lartet and + others, has shown that the whole district has assumed its present shape + slowly and gradually through a succession of ages, and that its peculiar + phenomena are similar to those of other lakes." So sank from view the + whole mass of Dead Sea myths and legends, and science gained a victory + both for geology and comparative mythology. + </p> + <p> + As a protest against this sort of rationalism appeared in 1876 an edition + of Monseigneur Mislin's work on The Holy Places. In order to give weight + to the book, it was prefaced by letters from Pope Pius IX and sundry high + ecclesiastics—and from Alexandre Dumas! His hatred of Protestant + missionaries in the East is phenomenal: he calls them "bagmen," ascribes + all mischief and infamy to them, and his hatred is only exceeded by his + credulity. He cites all the arguments in favour of the salt statue at + Usdum as the identical one into which Lot's wife was changed, adds some of + his own, and presents her as "a type of doubt and heresy." With the + proverbial facility of dogmatists in translating any word of a dead + language into anything that suits their purpose, he says that the word in + the nineteenth chapter of Genesis which is translated "statue" or + "pillar," may be translated "eternal monument"; he is especially severe on + poor Monsieur De Saulcy for thinking that Lot's wife was killed by the + falling of a piece of salt rock; and he actually boasts that it was he who + caused De Saulcy, a member of the French Institute, to suppress the + obnoxious passage in a later edition. + </p> + <p> + Between 1870 and 1880 came two killing blows at the older theories, and + they were dealt by two American scholars of the highest character. First + of these may be mentioned Dr. Philip Schaff, a professor in the + Presbyterian Theological Seminary at New York, who published his travels + in 1877. In a high degree he united the scientific with the religious + spirit, but the trait which made him especially fit for dealing with this + subject was his straightforward German honesty. He tells the simple truth + regarding the pillar of salt, so far as its physical origin and + characteristics are concerned, and leaves his reader to draw the natural + inference as to its relation to the myth. With the fate of Dr. Robertson + Smith in Scotland and Dr. Woodrow in South Carolina before him—both + recently driven from their professorships for truth-telling—Dr. + Schaff deserves honour for telling as much as he does. + </p> + <p> + Similar in effect, and even more bold in statement, were the travels of + the Rev. Henry Osborn, published in 1878. In a truly scientific spirit he + calls attention to the similarity of the Dead Sea, with the river Jordan, + to sundry other lake and river systems; points out the endless variations + between writers describing the salt formations at Usdum; accounts + rationally for these variations, and quotes from Dr. Anderson's report, + saying, "From the soluble nature of the salt and the crumbling looseness + of the marl, it may well be imagined that, while some of these needles are + in the process of formation, others are being washed away." + </p> + <p> + Thus came out, little by little, the truth regarding the Dead Sea myths, + and especially the salt pillar at Usdum; but the final truth remained to + be told in the Church, and now one of the purest men and truest divines of + this century told it. Arthur Stanley, Dean of Westminster, visiting the + country and thoroughly exploring it, allowed that the physical features of + the Dead Sea and its shores suggested the myths and legends, and he sums + up the whole as follows: "A great mass of legends and exaggerations, + partly the cause and partly the result of the old belief that the cities + were buried under the Dead Sea, has been gradually removed in recent + years." + </p> + <p> + So, too, about the same time, Dr. Conrad Furrer, pastor of the great + church of St. Peter at Zurich, gave to the world a book of travels, + reverent and thoughtful, and in this honestly acknowledged that the + needles of salt at the southern end of the Dead Sea "in primitive times + gave rise to the tradition that Lot's wife was transformed into a statue + of salt." Thus was the mythical character of this story at last openly + confessed by Leading churchmen on both continents. + </p> + <p> + Plain statements like these from such sources left the high theological + position more difficult than ever, and now a new compromise was attempted. + As the Siberian mother tried to save her best-beloved child from the + pursuing wolves by throwing over to them her less favoured children, so an + effort was now made in a leading commentary to save the legends of the + valley of Siddim and the miraculous destruction of the cities by throwing + overboard the legend of Lot's wife.(444) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (444) For Mislin, see his Les Saints Lieux, Paris, vol. iii, pp. +290-293, especially note at foot of page 292. For Schaff, see his +Through Bible Lands, especially chapter xxix; see also Rev. H. S. +Osborn, M. A., The Holy Land, pp. 267 et seq.; also Stanley's Sinai and +Palestine, London, 1887, especially pp. 290-293. For Furrer, see his +En Palestine, Geneva, 1886, vol. i, p.246. For the attempt to save +one legend by throwing overboard the other, see Keil and Delitzsch, +Biblischer Commentar uber das Alte Testament, vol. i, pp. 155, 156. For +Van de Velde, see his Syria and Palestine, vol. ii, p. 120. +</pre> + <p> + An amusing result has followed this development of opinion. As we have + already seen, traveller after traveller, Catholic and Protestant, now + visits the Dead Sea, and hardly one of them follows the New Testament + injunction to "remember Lot's wife." Nearly every one of them seems to + think it best to forget her. Of the great mass of pious legends they are + shy enough, but that of Lot's wife, as a rule, they seem never to have + heard of, and if they do allude to it they simply cover the whole subject + with a haze of pious rhetoric.(445) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (445) The only notice of the Lot's wife legend in the editions of +Robinson at my command is a very curious one by Leopold von Buch, the +eminent geologist. Robinson, with a fearlessness which does him credit, +consulted Von Buch, who in his answer was evidently inclined to make +things easier for Robinson by hinting that Lot was so much struck by +the salt formations that HE IMAGINED that his wife had been changed into +salt. On this theory, Robinson makes no comment. See Robinson, Biblical +Researches in Palestine, etc., London, 1841, vol. ii, p. 674. +</pre> + <p> + Naturally, under this state of things, there has followed the usual + attempt to throw off from Christendom the responsibility of the old + belief, and in 1887 came a curious effort of this sort. In that year + appeared the Rev. Dr. Cunningham Geikie's valuable work on The Holy Land + and the Bible. In it he makes the following statement as to the salt + formation at Usdum: "Here and there, hardened portions of salt + withstanding the water, while all around them melts and wears off, rise up + isolated pillars, one of which bears among the Arabs the name of 'Lot's + wife.'" + </p> + <p> + In the light of the previous history, there is something at once pathetic + and comical in this attempt to throw the myth upon the shoulders of the + poor Arabs. The myth was not originated by Mohammedans; it appears, as we + have seen, first among the Jews, and, I need hardly remind the reader, + comes out in the Book of Wisdom and in Josephus, and has been steadily + maintained by fathers, martyrs, and doctors of the Church, by at least one + pope, and by innumerable bishops, priests, monks, commentators, and + travellers, Catholic and Protestant, ever since. In thus throwing the + responsibility of the myth upon the Arabs Dr. Geikie appears to show both + the "perfervid genius" of his countrymen and their incapacity to recognise + a joke. + </p> + <p> + Nor is he more happy in his rationalistic explanations of the whole mass + of myths. He supposes a terrific storm, in which the lightning kindled the + combustible materials of the cities, aided perhaps by an earthquake; but + this shows a disposition to break away from the exact statements of the + sacred books which would have been most severely condemned by the + universal Church during at least eighteen hundred years of its history. + Nor would the explanations of Sir William Dawson have fared any better: it + is very doubtful whether either of them could escape unscathed today from + a synod of the Free Church of Scotland, or of any of the leading orthodox + bodies in the Southern States of the American Union.(446) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (446) For these most recent explanations, see Rev. Cunningham Geikie, D. +D., in work cited; also Sir J. W. Dawson, Egypt and Syria, published +by the Religious Tract Society, 1887, pp. 125, 126; see also Dawson's +article in The Expositor for January, 1886. +</pre> + <p> + How unsatisfactory all such rationalism must be to a truly theological + mind is seen not only in the dealings with Prof. Robertson Smith in + Scotland and Prof. Woodrow in South Carolina, but most clearly in a book + published in 1886 by Monseigneur Haussmann de Wandelburg. Among other + things, the author was Prelate of the Pope's House-hold, a Mitred Abbot, + Canon of the Holy Sepulchre, and a Doctor of Theology of the Pontifical + University at Rome, and his work is introduced by approving letters from + Pope Leo XIII and the Patriarch of Jerusalem. Monseigneur de Wandelburg + scorns the idea that the salt column at Usdum is not the statue of Lot's + wife; he points out not only the danger of yielding this evidence of + miracle to rationalism, but the fact that the divinely inspired authority + of the Book of Wisdom, written, at the latest, two hundred and fifty years + before Christ, distinctly refers to it. He summons Josephus as a witness. + He dwells on the fact that St. Clement of Rome, Irenaeus, Hegesippus, and + St. Cyril, "who as Bishop of Jerusalem must have known better than any + other person what existed in Palestine," with St. Jerome, St. Chrysostom, + and a multitude of others, attest, as a matter of their own knowledge or + of popular notoriety, that the remains of Lot's wife really existed in + their time in the form of a column of salt; and he points triumphantly to + the fact that Lieutenant Lynch found this very column. In the presence of + such a continuous line of witnesses, some of them considered as divinely + inspired, and all of them greatly revered—a line extending through + thirty-seven hundred years—he condemns most vigorously all those who + do not believe that the pillar of salt now at Usdum is identical with the + wife of Lot, and stigmatizes them as people who "do not wish to believe + the truth of the Word of God." + </p> + <p> + His ignorance of many of the simplest facts bearing upon the legend is + very striking, yet he does not hesitate to speak of men who know far more + and have thought far more upon the subject as "grossly ignorant." The most + curious feature in his ignorance is the fact that he is utterly unaware of + the annual changes in the salt statue. He is entirely ignorant of such + facts as that the priest Gabriel Giraudet in the sixteenth century found + the statue lying down; that the monk Zwinner found it in the seventeenth + century standing, and accompanied by a dog also transformed into salt; + that Prince Radziwill found no statue at all; that the pious Vincent + Briemle in the eighteenth century found the monument renewing itself; that + about the middle of the nineteenth century Lynch found it in the shape of + a tower or column forty feet high; that within two years afterward De + Saulcy found it washed into the form of a spire; that a year later Van de + Velde found it utterly washed away; and that a few years later Palmer + found it "a statue bearing a striking resemblance to an Arab woman with a + child in her arms." So ended the last great demonstration, thus far, on + the side of sacred science—the last retreating shot from the + theological rear guard. + </p> + <p> + It is but just to say that a very great share in the honour of the victory + of science in this field is due to men trained as theologians. It would + naturally be so, since few others have devoted themselves to direct labour + in it; yet great honour is none the less due to such men as Reland, + Mariti, Smith, Robinson, Stanley, Tristram, and Schat. + </p> + <p> + They have rendered even a greater service to religion than to science, for + they have made a beginning, at least, of doing away with that enforced + belief in myths as history which has become a most serious danger to + Christianity. + </p> + <p> + For the worst enemy of Christianity could wish nothing more than that its + main Leaders should prove that it can not be adopted save by those who + accept, as historical, statements which unbiased men throughout the world + know to be mythical. The result of such a demonstration would only be more + and more to make thinking people inside the Church dissemblers, and + thinking people outside, scoffers. Far better is it to welcome the aid of + science, in the conviction that all truth is one, and, in the light of + this truth, to allow theology and science to work together in the steady + evolution of religion and morality. + </p> + <p> + The revelations made by the sciences which most directly deal with the + history of man all converge in the truth that during the earlier stages of + this evolution moral and spiritual teachings must be inclosed in myth, + legend, and parable. "The Master" felt this when he gave to the poor + peasants about him, and so to the world, his simple and beautiful + illustrations. In making this truth clear, science will give to religion + far more than it will take away, for it will throw new life and light into + all sacred literature. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIX. FROM LEVITICUS TO POLITICAL ECONOMY + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0081" id="link2H_4_0081"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I. ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF HOSTILITY TO LOANS AT INTEREST. + </h2> + <p> + Among questions on which the supporters of right reason in political and + social science have only conquered theological opposition after centuries + of war, is the taking of interest on loans. In hardly any struggle has + rigid adherence to the letter of our sacred books been more prolonged and + injurious. + </p> + <p> + Certainly, if the criterion of truth, as regards any doctrine, be that of + St. Vincent of Lerins—that it has been held in the Church "always, + everywhere, and by all"—then on no point may a Christian of these + days be more sure than that every savings institution, every loan and + trust company, every bank, every loan of capital by an individual, every + means by which accumulated capital has been lawfully lent even at the most + moderate interest, to make men workers rather than paupers, is based on + deadly sin. + </p> + <p> + The early evolution of the belief that taking interest for money is sinful + presents a curious working together of metaphysical, theological, and + humanitarian ideas. + </p> + <p> + In the main centre of ancient Greek civilization, the loaning of money at + interest came to be accepted at an early period as a condition of + productive industry, and no legal restriction was imposed. In Rome there + was a long process of development: the greed of creditors in early times + led to laws against the taking of interest; but, though these lasted long, + that strong practical sense which gave Rome the empire of the world + substituted finally, for this absolute prohibition, the establishment of + rates by law. Yet many of the leading Greek and Roman thinkers opposed + this practical settlement of the question, and, foremost of all, + Aristotle. In a metaphysical way he declared that money is by nature + "barren"; that the birth of money from money is therefore "unnatural"; and + hence that the taking of interest is to be censured and hated. Plato, + Plutarch, both the Catos, Cicero, Seneca, and various other leaders of + ancient thought, arrived at much the same conclusion—sometimes from + sympathy with oppressed debtors; sometimes from dislike of usurers; + sometimes from simple contempt of trade. + </p> + <p> + From these sources there came into the early Church the germ of a + theological theory upon the subject. + </p> + <p> + But far greater was the stream of influence from the Jewish and Christian + sacred books. In the Old Testament stood various texts condemning usury—the + term usury meaning any taking of interest: the law of Moses, while it + allowed usury in dealing with strangers, forbade it in dealing with Jews. + In the New Testament, in the Sermon on the Mount, as given by St. Luke, + stood the text "Lend, hoping for nothing again." These texts seemed to + harmonize with the most beautiful characteristic of primitive + Christianity; its tender care for the poor and oppressed: hence we find, + from the earliest period, the whole weight of the Church brought to bear + against the taking of interest for money.(448) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (448) On the general allowance of interest for money in Greece, even at +high rates, see Bockh, Public Economy of the Athenians, translated by +Lamb, Boston, 1857, especially chaps. xxii, xxiii, and xxiv of book i. +For a view of usury taken by Aristotle, see his Politics and Economics, +translated by Walford, p. 27; also Grote, History of Greece, vol. iii, +chap. xi. For summary of opinions in Greece and Rome, and their relation +to Christian thought, see Bohm-Bawerk, Capital and Interest, translated +by Smart, London, 1890, chap. i. For a very full list of scripture texts +against the taking of interest, see Pearson, The Theories on Usury +in Europe, 1100-1400, Cambridge (England), 1876, p. 6. The texts most +frequently cited were Leviticus xxv, 36, 37; Deuteronomy xxiii, 19 and +26; Psalms, xv, 5; Ezekiel xviii, 8 and 17; St. Luke, vi, 35. For a +curious modern use of them, see D. S. Dickinson's speech in the State of +New York, in vol. i of his collected writings. See also Lecky, History +of Rationalism in Europe, vol. ii, chap. vi; and above all, as the most +recent historical summary by a leading historian of political economy, +Bohm-Bawerk, as above. +</pre> + <p> + The great fathers of the Eastern Church, and among them St. Basil, St. + Chrysostom, and St. Gregory of Nyssa,—the fathers of the Western + Church, and among them Tertullian, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and St. + Jerome, joined most earnestly in this condemnation. St. Basil denounces + money at interest as a "fecund monster," and says, "The divine law + declares expressly, 'Thou shalt not lend on usury to thy brother or thy + neighbour.'" St. Gregory of Nyssa calls down on him who lends money at + interest the vengeance of the Almighty. St. Chrysostom says: "What can be + more unreasonable than to sow without land, without rain, without ploughs? + All those who give themselves up to this damnable culture shall reap only + tares. Let us cut off these monstrous births of gold and silver; let us + stop this execrable fecundity." + </p> + <p> + Lactantius called the taking of interest "robbery." St. Ambrose declared + it as bad as murder, St. Jerome threw the argument into the form of a + dilemma, which was used as a weapon against money-lenders for centuries. + Pope Leo the Great solemnly adjudged it a sin worthy of severe + punishment.(449) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (449) For St. Basil and St. Gregory of Nyssa, see French translation +of their diatribes in Homelies contre les Usuriers, Paris, Hachette, +1861-'62, especially p. 30 of St. Basil. For some doubtful reservations +by St. Augustine, see Murray, History of Usury. For St. Ambrose, see De +Officiis, lib. iii, cap. ii, in Migne, Patr. Lat., vol. xvi; also the De +Tobia, in Migne, vol. xiv. For St. Augustine, see De Bapt. contr Donat., +lib. iv, cap. ix, in Migne, vol. xliii. For Lactantius, see his Opera, +Leyden, 1660, p. 608. For Cyprian, see his Testimonies against the Jews, +translated by Wallis, book iii, article 48. For St. Jerome, see his Com. +in Ezekiel, xviii, 8, in Migne, vol. xxv, pp. 170 et seq. For Leo the +Great, see his letter to the bishops of various provinces of Italy, +cited in the Jus. Can., cap. vii, can. xiv, qu. 4. For very fair +statements of the attitude of the fathers on this question, see Addis +and Arnold, Catholic Dictionary, London, 1884, and Smith and Cheetham, +Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, London, 1875-'80; in each, under +article Usury. +</pre> + <p> + This unanimity of the fathers of the Church brought about a + crystallization of hostility to interest-bearing loans into numberless + decrees of popes and councils and kings and legislatures throughout + Christendom during more than fifteen hundred years, and the canon law was + shaped in accordance with these. At first these were more especially + directed against the clergy, but we soon find them extending to the laity. + These prohibitions were enforced by the Council of Arles in 314, and a + modern Church apologist insists that every great assembly of the Church, + from the Council of Elvira in 306 to that of Vienne in 1311, inclusive, + solemnly condemned lending money at interest. The greatest rulers under + the sway of the Church—Justinian, in the Empire of the East; + Charlemagne, in the Empire of the West; Alfred, in England; St. Louis, in + France—yielded fully to this dogma. In the ninth century Alfred went + so far as to confiscate the estates of money-lenders, denying them burial + in Consecrated ground; and similar decrees were made in other parts of + Europe. In the twelfth century the Greek Church seems to have relaxed its + strictness somewhat, but the Roman Church grew more severe. St. Anselm + proved from the Scriptures that the taking of interest is a breach of the + Ten Commandments. Peter Lombard, in his Sentences, made the taking of + interest purely and simply theft. St. Bernard, reviving religious + earnestness in the Church, took the same view. In 1179 the Third Council + of the Lateran decreed that impenitent money-lenders should be excluded + from the altar, from absolution in the hour of death, and from Christian + burial. Pope Urban III reiterated the declaration that the passage in St. + Luke forbade the taking of any interest whatever. Pope Alexander III + declared that the prohibition in this matter could never be suspended by + dispensation. + </p> + <p> + In the thirteenth century Pope Gregory IX dealt an especially severe blow + at commerce by his declaration that even to advance on interest the money + necessary in maritime trade was damnable usury; and this was fitly + followed by Gregory X, who forbade Christian burial to those guilty of + this practice; the Council of Lyons meted out the same penalty. This idea + was still more firmly fastened upon the world by the two greatest thinkers + of the time: first, by St. Thomas Aquinas, who knit it into the mind of + the Church by the use of the Scriptures and of Aristotle; and next by + Dante, who pictured money-lenders in one of the worst regions of hell. + </p> + <p> + About the beginning of the fourteenth century the "Subtile Doctor" of the + Middle Ages, Duns Scotus, gave to the world an exquisite piece of + reasoning in evasion of the accepted doctrine; but all to no purpose: the + Council of Vienne, presided over by Pope Clement V, declared that if any + one "shall pertinaciously presume to affirm that the taking of interest + for money is not a sin, we decree him to be a heretic, fit for + punishment." This infallible utterance bound the dogma with additional + force on the conscience of the universal Church. + </p> + <p> + Nor was this a doctrine enforced by rulers only; the people were no less + strenuous. In 1390 the city authorities of London enacted that, "if any + person shall lend or put into the hands of any person gold or silver to + receive gain thereby, such person shall have the punishment for usurers." + And in the same year the Commons prayed the king that the laws of London + against usury might have the force of statutes throughout the realm. + </p> + <p> + In the fifteenth century the Council of the Church at Salzburg excluded + from communion and burial any who took interest for money, and this was a + very general rule throughout Germany. + </p> + <p> + An exception was, indeed, sometimes made: some canonists held that Jews + might be allowed to take interest, since they were to be damned in any + case, and their monopoly of money-lending might prevent Christians from + losing their souls by going into the business. Yet even the Jews were from + time to time punished for the crime of usury; and, as regards Christians, + punishment was bestowed on the dead as well as the living—the bodies + of dead money-lenders being here and there dug up and cast out of + consecrated ground. + </p> + <p> + The popular preachers constantly declaimed against all who took interest. + The medieval anecdote books for pulpit use are especially full on this + point. Jacques de Vitry tells us that demons on one occasion filled a dead + money-lender's mouth with red-hot coins; Cesarius of Heisterbach declared + that a toad was found thrusting a piece of money into a dead usurer's + heart; in another case, a devil was seen pouring molten gold down a dead + money-lender's throat.(450) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (450) For an enumeration of councils condemning the taking of interest +for money, see Liegeois, Essai sur l'Histoire et la Legislation de +l'Usure, Paris, 1865, p. 78; also the Catholic Dictionary as above. For +curious additional details and sources regarding mediaeval horror of +usurers, see Ducange, Glossarium, etc., article Caorcini. T he date 306, +for the Council of Elvira is that assigned by Hefele. For the decree +of Alexander III, see citation from the Latin text in Lecky. For a +long catalogue of ecclesiastical and civil decrees against taking of +interest, see Petit, Traite de l'Usure, Paris, 1840. For the reasoning +at the bottom of this, see Cunningham, Christian Opinion on Usury, +London, 1884. For the Salzburg decrees, see Zillner, Salzburgusche +Culturgeschichte, p. 232; and for Germany generally, see Neumann, +Geschichte des Wuchers in Deutschland, Halle, 1865, especially pp. 22 et +seq; also Roscher, National-Oeconomis. For effect of mistranslation +of the passage of Luke in the Vulgate, see Dollinger, p. 170, and +especially pp. 224, 225 For the capitularies of Charlemagne against +usury, see Liegeois, p. 77. For Gregory X and the Council of Lyons, see +Sextus Decretalium liber, pp. 669 et. seq. For Peter Lombard, see his +Lib. Sententiarum, III, dist. xxxvii, 3. For St. Thomas Aquinas, see his +works, Migne, vol. iii, Paris 1889, quaestio 78, pp. 587 et seq., citing +the Scriptures and Aristotle, and especially developing Aristotle's +metaphysical idea regarding the "barrenness" of money. For a very good +summary of St. Thomas's ideas, see Pearson. pp. 30 et seq. For Dante, +see in canto xi of the Inferno a revelation of the amazing depth of the +hostility to the taking of interest. For the London law of 1390 and the +petition to the king, see Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and +Commerce, pp. 210, 326; also the Abridgment of the Records in the Tower +of London, p. 339. For the theory that Jews, being damned already, might +be allowed to practice usury, see Liegeois, Histoire de l'Usure, p. 82. +For St. Bernard's view, see Epist. CCCLXIII, in Migne, vol. clxxxii, +p. 567. For ideas and anecdotes for preachers' use, see Joannes a San +Geminiano, Summa de Exemplis, Antwerp, 1629, fol. 493, a; also the +edition of Venice, 1584, ff. 132, 159; but especially, for multitudes +of examples, see the Exempla of Jacques de Vitry, edited by Prof. T. +F. Crane, of Cornell University, London, 1890, pp. 203 et seq. For the +canon law in regard to interest, see a long line of authorities cited in +Die Wucherfrage, St. Louis, 1869, pp. 92 et seq., and especially Decret. +Gregor., lib v, lit. 19, cap. iii, and Clementin., lib. v, lit. 5, sec. +2; see also the Corpus Juris Canonici, Paris, 1618, pp. 227, 228. +For the position of the English Church, see Gibson's Corpus Juris +Ecclesiastici Anglicani, pp. 1070, 1071, 1106. +</pre> + <p> + This theological hostility to the taking of interest was imbedded firmly + in the canon law. Again and again it defined usury to be the taking of + anything of value beyond the exact original amount of a loan; and under + sanction of the universal Church it denounced this as a crime and declared + all persons defending it to be guilty of heresy. What this meant the world + knows but too well. + </p> + <p> + The whole evolution of European civilization was greatly hindered by this + conscientious policy. Money could only be loaned in most countries at the + risk of incurring odium in this world and damnation in the next; hence + there was but little capital and few lenders. The rates of interest became + at times enormous; as high as forty per cent in England, and ten per cent + a month in Italy and Spain. Commerce, manufactures, and general enterprise + were dwarfed, while pauperism flourished. + </p> + <p> + Yet worse than these were the moral results. Doing what one holds to be + evil is only second in bad consequences to doing what is really evil; + hence, all lending and borrowing, even for the most legitimate purposes + and at the most reasonable rates, tended to debase both borrower and + lender. The prohibition of lending at interest in continental Europe + promoted luxury and discouraged economy; the rich, who were not engaged in + business, finding no easy way of employing their incomes productively, + spent them largely in ostentation and riotous living. One evil effect is + felt in all parts of the world to this hour. The Jews, so acute in + intellect and strong in will, were virtually drawn or driven out of all + other industries or professions by the theory that their race, being + accursed, was only fitted for the abhorred profession of + money-lending.(451) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (451) For evil economic results, and especially for the rise of the rate +of interest in England and elsewhere at times to forty per cent, see +Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce, Cambridge, 1890, +p. 189; and for its rising to ten per cent a month, see Bedarride, Les +Juifs en France, en Italie, at en Espagne, p. 220; see also Hallam's +Middle Ages, London, 1853, pp. 401, 402. For the evil moral effects of +the Church doctrine against taking interest, see Montesquieu, Esprit +des Lois, lib. xxi, chap. xx; see also Sismondi, cited in Lecky. For +the trifling with conscience, distinction between "consumptibles" and +"fungibles," "possessio" and "dominium," etc., see Ashley, English +Economic History, New York, pp. 152, 153; see also Leopold Delisle, +Etudes, pp. 198, 468. For the effects of these doctrines on the Jews, +see Milman, History of the Jews, vol. iii, p. 179; also Wellhausen, +History of Israel, London, 1885, p. 546; also Beugnot, Les Juifs +d'Occident, Paris, 1824, pt. 2, p. 114 (on driving Jews out of other +industries than money-lending). For a noted mediaeval evasion of the +Church rules against usury, see Peruzzi, Storia del Commercio e dei +Banchieri di Firenze, Florence, 1868, pp. 172, 173. +</pre> + <p> + These evils were so manifest, when trade began to revive throughout Europe + in the fifteenth century, that most earnest exertions were put forth to + induce the Church to change its position. + </p> + <p> + The first important effort of this kind was made by John Gerson. His + general learning made him Chancellor of the University of Paris; his + sacred learning made him the leading orator at the Council of Constance; + his piety led men to attribute to him The Imitation of Christ. Shaking off + theological shackles, he declared, "Better is it to lend money at + reasonable interest, and thus to give aid to the poor, than to see them + reduced by poverty to steal, waste their goods, and sell at a low price + their personal and real property." + </p> + <p> + But this idea was at once buried beneath citations from the Scriptures, + the fathers, councils, popes, and the canon law. Even in the most active + countries there seemed to be no hope. In England, under Henry VII, + Cardinal Morton, the lord chancellor, addressed Parliament, asking it to + take into consideration loans of money at interest. The result was a law + which imposed on lenders at interest a fine of a hundred pounds besides + the annulment of the loan; and, to show that there was an offence against + religion involved, there was added a clause "reserving to the Church, + notwithstanding this punishment, the correction of their souls according + to the laws of the same." + </p> + <p> + Similar enactments were made by civil authority in various parts of + Europe; and just when the trade, commerce, and manufactures of the modern + epoch had received an immense impulse from the great series of voyages of + discovery by such men as Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Magellan, and the + Cabots, this barrier against enterprise was strengthened by a decree from + no less enlightened a pontiff than Leo X. + </p> + <p> + The popular feeling warranted such decrees. As late as the end of the + Middle Ages we find the people of Piacenza dragging the body of a + money-lender out of his grave in consecrated ground and throwing it into + the river Po, in order to stop a prolonged rainstorm; and outbreaks of the + same spirit were frequent in other countries. (452) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (452) For Gerson's argument favouring a reasonable rate of interest, see +Coquelin and Guillaumin, Dictionnaire, article Interet. For the renewed +opposition to the taking of interest in England, see Craik, History of +British Commerce, chap. vi. The statute cited is 3 Henry VII, chap. vi; +it is found in Gibson's Corpus Juris Eccles. Anglic., p. 1071. For +the adverse decree of Leo X, see Liegeois, p. 76. See also Lecky, +Rationalism, vol. ii. For the dragging out of the usurer's body at +Piacenza, see Burckhardt, The Renaissance in Italy, London, 1878, vol. +ii, p. 339. For public opinion of similar strength on this subject in +England, see Cunningham, p. 239; also Pike, History of Crime in England, +vol. i, pp. 127, 193. For good general observations on the same, see +Stephen, History of Criminal Law in England, London, 1883, vol. iii, pp. +195-197. For usury laws in Castile and Aragon, see Bedarride, pp. +191, 192. For exceedingly valuable details as to the attitude of the +mediaeval Church, see Leopold Delisle, Etudes sur la Classe Agricole en +Normandie au Moyen Age, Evreux, 1851, pp. 200 et seq., also p. 468. For +penalties in France, see Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, in the Rolls +Series, especially vol. iii, pp. 191, 192. For a curious evasion, +sanctioned by Popes Martin V and Calixtus III when Church corporations +became money-lenders, see H. C. Lea on The Ecclesiastical Treatment of +Usury, in the Yale Review for February, 1894. For a detailed development +of interesting subordinate points, see Ashley, Introduction to English +Economic History and Theory, vol. ii, ch, vi. +</pre> + <p> + Another mode of obtaining relief was tried. Subtle theologians devised + evasions of various sorts. Two among these inventions of the schoolmen + obtained much notoriety. + </p> + <p> + The first was the doctrine of "damnum emergens": if a lender suffered loss + by the failure of the borrower to return a loan at a date named, + compensation might be made. Thus it was that, if the nominal date of + payment was made to follow quickly after the real date of the loan, the + compensation for the anticipated delay in payment had a very strong + resemblance to interest. Equally cogent was the doctrine of "lucrum + cessans": if a man, in order to lend money, was obliged to diminish his + income from productive enterprises, it was claimed that he might receive + in return, in addition to his money, an amount exactly equal to this + diminution in his income. + </p> + <p> + But such evasions were looked upon with little favour by the great body of + theologians, and the name of St. Thomas Aquinas was triumphantly cited + against them. + </p> + <p> + Opposition on scriptural grounds to the taking of interest was not + confined to the older Church. Protestantism was led by Luther and several + of his associates into the same line of thought and practice. Said Luther. + "To exchange anything with any one and gain by the exchange is not to do a + charity; but to steal. Every usurer is a thief worthy of the gibbet. I + call those usurers who lend money at five or six per cent." But it is only + just to say that at a later period Luther took a much more moderate view. + Melanchthon, defining usury as any interest whatever, condemned it again + and again; and the Goldberg Catechism of 1558, for which he wrote a + preface and recommendation, declares every person taking interest for + money a thief. From generation to generation this doctrine was upheld by + the more eminent divines of the Lutheran Church in all parts of Germany. + The English reformers showed the same hostility to interest-bearing loans. + Under Henry VIII the law of Henry VII against taking interest had been + modified for the better; but the revival of religious feeling under Edward + VI caused in 1552 the passage of the "Bill of Usury." In this it is said, + "Forasmuch as usury is by the word of God utterly prohibited, as a vice + most odious and detestable, as in divers places of the Holy Scriptures it + is evident to be seen, which thing by no godly teachings and persuasions + can sink into the hearts of divers greedy, uncharitable, and covetous + persons of this realm, nor yet, by any terrible threatenings of God's + wrath and vengeance," etc., it is enacted that whosoever shall thereafter + lend money "for any manner of usury, increase, lucre, gain, or interest, + to be had, received, or hoped for," shall forfeit principal and interest, + and suffer imprisonment and fine at the king's pleasure.(453) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (453) For Luther's views, see his sermon, Von dem Wucher, Wittenberg, +1519; also the Table Talk, cited in Coquelin and Guillaumin, article +Interet. For the later, more moderate views of Luther, Melanchthon, and +Zwingli, making a compromise with the needs of society, see Bohm-Bawerk, +p. 27, citing Wiskemann. For Melanchthon and a long line of the most +eminent Lutheran divines who have denounced the taking of interest, see +Die Wucherfrage, St. Louis, 1869, pp. 94 et seq. For the law against +usury under Edward VI, see Cobbett's Parliamentary History, vol. i, p. +596; see also Craik, History of British Commerce, chap. vi. +</pre> + <p> + But, most fortunately, it happened that Calvin, though at times stumbling + over the usual texts against the taking of interest for money, turned + finally in the right direction. He cut through the metaphysical arguments + of Aristotle, and characterized the subtleties devised to evade the + Scriptures as "a childish game with God." In place of these subtleties + there was developed among Protestants a serviceable fiction—the + statement that usury means ILLEGAL OR OPPRESSIVE INTEREST. Under the + action of this fiction, commerce and trade revived rapidly in Protestant + countries, though with occasional checks from exact interpreters of + Scripture. At the same period in France, the great Protestant jurist + Dumoulin brought all his legal learning and skill in casuistry to bear on + the same side. A certain ferretlike acuteness and litheness seem to have + enabled him to hunt down the opponents of interest-taking through the most + tortuous arguments of scholasticism. + </p> + <p> + In England the struggle went on with varying fortune; statesmen on one + side, and theologians on the other. We have seen how, under Henry VIII, + interest was allowed at a fixed rate, and how, the development of English + Protestantism having at first strengthened the old theological view, there + was, under Edward VI, a temporarily successful attempt to forbid the + taking of interest by law. + </p> + <p> + The Puritans, dwelling on Old Testament texts, continued for a + considerable time especially hostile to the taking of any interest. Henry + Smith, a noted preacher, thundered from the pulpit of St. Clement Danes in + London against "the evasions of Scripture" which permitted men to lend + money on interest at all. In answer to the contention that only "biting" + usury was oppressive, Wilson, a noted upholder of the strict theological + view in political economy, declared: "There is difference in deed between + the bite of a dogge and the bite of a flea, and yet, though the flea doth + lesse harm, yet the flea doth bite after hir kinde, yea, and draweth + blood, too. But what a world this is, that men will make sin to be but a + fleabite, when they see God's word directly against them!" + </p> + <p> + The same view found strong upholders among contemporary English Catholics. + One of the most eminent of these, Nicholas Sanders, revived very + vigorously the use of an old scholastic argument. He insisted that "man + can not sell time," that time is not a human possession, but something + which is given by God alone: he declared, "Time was not of your gift to + your neighbour, but of God's gift to you both." + </p> + <p> + In the Parliament of the period, we find strong assertions of the old + idea, with constant reference to Scripture and the fathers. In one debate, + Wilson cited from Ezekiel and other prophets and attributed to St. + Augustine the doctrine that "to take but a cup of wine is usury and + damnable." Fleetwood recalled the law of King Edward the Confessor, which + submitted usurers to the ordeal. + </p> + <p> + But arguments of this sort had little influence upon Elizabeth and her + statesmen. Threats of damnation in the next world troubled them little if + they could have their way in this. They re-established the practice of + taking interest under restrictions, and this, in various forms, has + remained in England ever since. Most notable in this phase of the + evolution of scientific doctrine in political economy at that period is + the emergence of a recognised difference between USURY and INTEREST. + Between these two words, which had so long been synonymous, a distinction + now appears: the former being construed to indicate OPPRESSIVE INTEREST, + and the latter JUST RATES for the use of money. This idea gradually sank + into the popular mind of Protestant countries, and the scriptural texts no + longer presented any difficulty to the people at large, since there grew + up a general belief that the word "usury," as employed in Scripture, had + ALWAYS meant exorbitant interest; and this in spite of the parable of the + Talents. Still, that the old Aristotelian quibble had not been entirely + forgotten, is clearly seen by various passages in Shakespeare's Merchant + of Venice. But this line of reasoning seems to have received its quietus + from Lord Bacon. He did not, indeed, develop a strong and connected + argument on the subject; but he burst the bonds of Aristotle, and based + interest for money upon natural laws. How powerful the new current of + thought was, is seen from the fact that James I, of all monarchs the most + fettered by scholasticism and theology, sanctioned a statute dealing with + interest for money as absolutely necessary. Yet, even after this, the old + idea asserted itself; for the bishops utterly refused to agree to the law + allowing interest until a proviso was inserted that "nothing in this law + contained shall be construed or expounded to allow the practice of usury + in point of religion or conscience." The old view cropped out from time to + time in various public declarations. Famous among these were the Treatise + of Usury, published in 1612 by Dr. Fenton, who restated the old arguments + with much force, and the Usury Condemned of John Blaxton, published in + 1634. Blaxton, who also was a clergyman, defined usury as the taking of + any interest whatever for money, citing in support of this view six + archbishops and bishops and over thirty doctors of divinity in the + Anglican Church, some of their utterances being very violent and all of + them running their roots down into texts of Scripture. Typical among these + is a sermon of Bishop Sands, in which he declares, regarding the taking of + interest: "This canker hath corrupted all England; we shall doe God and + our country true service by taking away this evill; represse it by law, + else the heavy hand of God hangeth over us and will strike us." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0082" id="link2H_4_0082"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II. RETREAT OF THE CHURCH, PROTESTANT AND CATHOLIC. + </h2> + <p> + But about the middle of the seventeenth century Sir Robert Filmer gave + this doctrine the heaviest blow it ever received in England. Taking up Dr. + Fenton's treatise, he answered it, and all works like it, in a way which, + however unsuitable to this century, was admirably adapted to that. He + cites Scripture and chops logic after a masterly manner. Characteristic is + this declaration: "St. Paul doth, with one breath, reckon up seventeen + sins, and yet usury is none of them; but many preachers can not reckon up + seven deadly sins, except they make usury one of them." Filmer followed + Fenton not only through his theology, but through his political economy, + with such relentless keenness that the old doctrine seems to have been + then and there practically worried out of existence, so far as England was + concerned. + </p> + <p> + Departures from the strict scriptural doctrines regarding interest soon + became frequent in Protestant countries, and they were followed up with + especial vigour in Holland. Various theologians in the Dutch Church + attempted to assert the scriptural view by excluding bankers from the holy + communion; but the commercial vigour of the republic was too strong: + Salmasius led on the forces of right reason brilliantly, and by the middle + of the seventeenth century the question was settled rightly in that + country. This work was aided, indeed, by a far greater man, Hugo Grotius; + but here was shown the power of an established dogma. Great as Grotius was—and + it may well be held that his book on War and Peace has wrought more + benefit to humanity than any other attributed to human authorship—he + was, in the matter of interest for money, too much entangled in + theological reasoning to do justice to his cause or to himself. He + declared the prohibition of it to be scriptural, but resisted the doctrine + of Aristotle, and allowed interest on certain natural and practical + grounds. + </p> + <p> + In Germany the struggle lasted longer. Of some little significance, + perhaps, is the demand of Adam Contzen, in 1629, that lenders at interest + should be punished as thieves; but by the end of the seventeenth century + Puffendorf and Leibnitz had gained the victory. + </p> + <p> + Protestantism, open as it was to the currents of modern thought, could not + long continue under the dominion of ideas unfavourable to economic + development, and perhaps the most remarkable proof of this was presented + early in the eighteenth century in America, by no less strict a theologian + than Cotton Mather. In his Magnalia he argues against the whole + theological view with a boldness, acuteness, and good sense which cause us + to wonder that this can be the same man who was so infatuated regarding + witchcraft. After an argument so conclusive as his, there could have been + little left of the old anti-economic doctrine in New England.(454) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (454) For Calvin's views, see his letter published in the appendix to +Pearson's Theories on Usury. His position is well-stated in Bohm-Bawerk, +pp. 28 et seq., where citations are given. See also Economic Tracts, +No. IV, New York, 1881, pp. 34, 35; and for some serviceable Protestant +fictions, see Cunningham, Christian Opinion on Usury, pp. 60, 61. For +Dumoulin (Molinaeus), see Bohm-Bawerk, as above, pp. 29 et seq. For +debates on usury in the British Parliament in Elizabeth's time, see +Cobbett, Parliamentary History, vol. i, pp 756 et seq. A striking +passage in Shakespeare is found in the Merchant of Venice, Act I, scene +iii: "If thou wilt lend this money, lend it not as to thy friend; for +when did friendship take a breed for barren metal of his friend?" For +the right direction taken by Lord Bacon, see Neumann, Geschichte des +Wuchers in Deutschland, Halle, 1864, pp. 497, 498. For Salmasius, see +his De Usuris, Leyden, 1638, and for others mentioned, see Bohm-Bawerk, +pp. 34 et seq.; also Lecky, vol. ii. p. 256. For the saving clause +inderted by the bishops in the statute of James I, see the Corpus Juris +Eccles. Anglic., p. 1071; also Murray, History of Usury, Philadelphia, +1866, p. 49. +</pre> + <p> + For Blaxton, see his English Usurer, or Usury Condemned, by John Blaxton, + Preacher of God's Word, London, 1634. Blaxton gives some of Calvin's + earlier utterances against interest. For Bishop Sands;s sermon, see p. 11. + For Filmer, see his Quaestio Quodlibetica, London, 1652, reprinted in the + Harleian Miscellany, vol x, pp. 105 et seq. For Grotius, see the De Jure + Belli ac Pacis, lib. ii, cap. xii. For Cotton Mather's argument, see the + Magnalia, London, 1702, pp. 5, 52. + </p> + <p> + But while the retreat of the Protestant Church from the old doctrine + regarding the taking of interest was henceforth easy, in the Catholic + Church it was far more difficult. Infallible popes and councils, with + saints, fathers, and doctors, had so constantly declared the taking of any + interest at all to be contrary to Scripture, that the more exact though + less fortunate interpretation of the sacred text relating to interest + continued in Catholic countries. When it was attempted in France in the + seventeenth century to argue that usury "means oppressive interest," the + Theological Faculty of the Sorbonne declared that usury is the taking of + any interest at all, no matter how little; and the eighteenth chapter of + Ezekiel was cited to clinch this argument. + </p> + <p> + Another attempt to ease the burden of industry and commerce was made by + declaring that "usury means interest demanded not as a matter of favour + but as a matter of right." This, too, was solemnly condemned by Pope + innocent XI. + </p> + <p> + Again an attempt was made to find a way out of the difficulty by declaring + that "usury is interest greater than the law allows." This, too, was + condemned, and so also was the declaration that "usury is interest on + loans not for a fixed time." + </p> + <p> + Still the forces of right reason pressed on, and among them, in the + seventeenth century, in France, was Richard Simon. He attempted to gloss + over the declarations of Scripture against lending at interest, in an + elaborate treatise, but was immediately confronted by Bossuet. Just as + Bossuet had mingled Scripture with astronomy and opposed the Copernican + theory, so now he mingled Scripture with political economy and denounced + the lending of money at interest. He called attention to the fact that the + Scriptures, the councils of the Church from the beginning, the popes, the + fathers, had all interpreted the prohibition of "usury" to be a + prohibition of any lending at interest; and he demonstrated this + interpretation to be the true one. Simon was put to confusion and his book + condemned. + </p> + <p> + There was but too much reason for Bossuet's interpretation. There stood + the fact that the prohibition of one of the most simple and beneficial + principles in political and economical science was affirmed, not only by + the fathers, but by twenty-eight councils of the Church, six of them + general councils, and by seventeen popes, to say nothing of innumerable + doctors in theology and canon law. And these prohibitions by the Church + had been accepted as of divine origin by all obedient sons of the Church + in the government of France. Such rulers as Charles the Bald in the ninth + century, and St. Louis in the thirteenth, had riveted this idea into the + civil law so firmly that it seemed impossible ever to detach it.(455) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (455) For the declaration of the Sorbonne in the seventeenth century +against taking of interest, see Lecky, Rationalism, vol. ii, p. 248, +note. For the special condemnation by Innocent XI, see Viva, Damnatae +Theses, Pavia, 1715, pp. 112-114. For consideration of various ways of +escaping the difficulty regarding interest, see Lecky, Rationalism, +vol. ii, pp. 249, 250. For Bousset's strong declaration against taking +interest, see his Oeuvres, Paris, 1845-'46, vol. i, p. 734, vol. vi, +p. 654, and vol. ix, p. 49 et seq. For the number of councils and popes +condemning usury, see Lecky, as above, vol. ii, p. 255, note, citing +Concina. +</pre> + <p> + As might well be expected, Italy was one of the countries in which the + theological theory regarding usury—lending at interest—was + most generally asserted and assented to. Among the great number of Italian + canonists who supported the theory, two deserve especial mention, as + affording a contrast to the practical manner in which the commercial + Italians met the question. + </p> + <p> + In the sixteenth century, very famous among canonists was the learned + Benedictine, Vilagut. In 1589 he published at Venice his great work on + usury, supporting with much learning and vigour the most extreme + theological consequences of the old doctrine. He defines usury as the + taking of anything beyond the original loan, and declares it mortal sin; + he advocates the denial to usurers of Christian burial, confession, the + sacraments, absolution, and connection with the universities; he declares + that priests receiving offerings from usurers should refrain from + exercising their ministry until the matter is passed upon by the bishop. + </p> + <p> + About the middle of the seventeenth century another ponderous folio was + published in Venice upon the same subject and with the same title, by + Onorato Leotardi. So far from showing any signs of yielding, he is even + more extreme than Vilagut had been, and quotes with approval the old + declaration that lenders of money at interest are not only robbers but + murderers. + </p> + <p> + So far as we can learn, no real opposition was made in either century to + this theory, as a theory; as to PRACTICE, it was different. The Italian + traders did not answer theological argument; they simply overrode it. In + spite of theology, great banks were established, and especially that of + Venice at the end of the twelfth century, and those of Barcelona and Genoa + at the beginning of the fifteenth. Nowhere was commerce carried on in more + complete defiance of this and other theological theories hampering trade + than in the very city where these great treatises were published. The sin + of usury, like the sin of commerce with the Mohammedans, seems to have + been settled for by the Venetian merchants on their deathbeds; and greatly + to the advantage of the magnificent churches and ecclesiastical adornments + of the city. + </p> + <p> + By the seventeenth century the clearest thinkers in the Roman Church saw + that her theology must be readjusted to political economy: so began a + series of amazing attempts to reconcile a view permitting usury with the + long series of decrees of popes and councils forbidding it. + </p> + <p> + In Spain, the great Jesuit casuist Escobar led the way, and rarely had + been seen such exquisite hair-splitting. But his efforts were not received + with the gratitude they perhaps deserved. Pascal, revolting at their moral + effect, attacked them unsparingly in his Provincial Letters, citing + especially such passages as the following: "It is usury to receive profit + from those to whom one lends, if it be exacted as justly due; but, if it + be exacted as a debt of gratitude, it is not usury." This and a multitude + of similar passages Pascal covered with the keen ridicule and indignant + denunciation of which he was so great a master. + </p> + <p> + But even the genius of Pascal could not stop such efforts. In the + eighteenth century they were renewed by a far greater theologian than + Escobar—by him who was afterward made a saint and proclaimed a + doctor of the Church—Alphonso Liguori. + </p> + <p> + Starting with bitter denunciations of usury, Liguori soon developed a + multitude of subtle devices for escaping the guilt of it. Presenting a + long and elaborate theory of "mental, usury" he arrives at the conclusion + that, if the borrower pay interest of his own free will, the lender may + keep it. In answer to the question whether the lender may keep what the + borrower paid, not out of gratitude but out of fear—fear that + otherwise loans might be refused him in future—Liguori says, "To be + usury it must be paid by reason of a contract, or as justly due; payment + by reason of such a fear does not cause interest to be paid as an actual + price." Again Liguori tells us, "It is not usury to exact something in + return for the danger and expense of regaining the principal." The old + subterfuges of "Damnum emergens" and "Lucrum cessans" are made to do full + duty. A remarkable quibble is found in the answer to the question whether + he sins who furnishes money to a man whom he knows to intend employing it + in usury. After citing affirmative opinions from many writers, Liguori + says, "Notwithstanding these opinions, the better opinion seems to me to + be that the man thus putting out his money is not bound to make + restitution, for his action is not injurious to the borrower, but rather + favourable to him," and this reasoning the saint develops at great length. + </p> + <p> + In the Latin countries this sort of casuistry eased the relations of the + Church with the bankers, and it was full time; for now there came + arguments of a different kind. The eighteenth century philosophy had come + upon the stage, and the first effective onset of political scientists + against the theological opposition in southern Europe was made in Italy—the + most noted leaders in the attack being Galiani and Maffei. Here and there + feeble efforts were made to meet them, but it was felt more and more by + thinking churchmen that entirely different tactics must be adopted. + </p> + <p> + About the same time came an attack in France, and though its results were + less immediate at home, they were much more effective abroad. In 1748 + appeared Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws. In this famous book were + concentrated twenty years of study and thought by a great thinker on the + interests of the world about him. In eighteen months it went through + twenty-two editions; it was translated into every civilized language; and + among the things on which Montesquieu brought his wit and wisdom to bear + with especial force was the doctrine of the Church regarding interest on + loans. In doing this he was obliged to use a caution in forms which seems + strangely at variance with the boldness of his ideas. In view of the + strictness of ecclesiastical control in France, he felt it safest to make + his whole attack upon those theological and economic follies of Mohammedan + countries which were similar to those which the theological spirit had + fastened on France.(456) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (456) For Vilagut, see his Tractatus de Usuris, Venice, 1589, especially +pp. 21, 25, 399. For Leotardi, see his De Usuris, Venice, 1655, +especially preface, pp. 6, 7 et seq. For Pascal and Escobar, see the +Provincial Letters, edited by Sayres, Cambridge, 1880, Letter VIII, pp. +183-186; also a note to the same letter, p. 196. For Liguori, see +his Theologia Moralis, Paris, 1834, lib. iii, tract v, cap. iii: De +Contractibus, dub, vii. For the eighteenth century attack in Italy, see +Bohm-Bawerk, pp. 48 et seq. For Montesquieu's view of interest on loans, +see the Esprit des Lois, livre xxii. +</pre> + <p> + By the middle of the eighteenth century the Church authorities at Rome + clearly saw the necessity of a concession: the world would endure + theological restriction no longer; a way of escape MUST be found. It was + seen, even by the most devoted theologians, that mere denunciations and + use of theological arguments or scriptural texts against the scientific + idea were futile. + </p> + <p> + To this feeling it was due that, even in the first years of the century, + the Jesuit casuists had come to the rescue. With exquisite subtlety some + of their acutest intellects devoted themselves to explaining away the + utterances on this subject of saints, fathers, doctors, popes, and + councils. These explanations were wonderfully ingenious, but many of the + older churchmen continued to insist upon the orthodox view, and at last + the Pope himself intervened. Fortunately for the world, the seat of St. + Peter was then occupied by Benedict XIV, certainly one of the most gifted, + morally and intellectually, in the whole line of Roman pontiffs. Tolerant + and sympathetic for the oppressed, he saw the necessity of taking up the + question, and he grappled with it effectually: he rendered to Catholicism + a service like that which Calvin had rendered to Protestantism, by + shrewdly cutting a way through the theological barrier. In 1745 he issued + his encyclical Vix pervenit, which declared that the doctrine of the + Church remained consistent with itself; that usury is indeed a sin, and + that it consists in demanding any amount beyond the exact amount lent, but + that there are occasions when on special grounds the lender may obtain + such additional sum. + </p> + <p> + What these "occasions" and "special grounds" might be, was left very + vague; but this action was sufficient. + </p> + <p> + At the same time no new restrictions upon books advocating the taking of + interest for money were imposed, and, in the year following his + encyclical, Benedict openly accepted the dedication of one of them—the + work of Maffei, and perhaps the most cogent of all. + </p> + <p> + Like the casuistry of Boscovich in using the Copernican theory for + "convenience in argument," while acquiescing in its condemnation by the + Church authorities, this encyclical of Pope Benedict broke the spell. + Turgot, Quesnay, Adam Smith, Hume, Bentham, and their disciples pressed + on, and science won for mankind another great victory.(457) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (457) For Quesnay, see his Observations sur l'Interet de l'Argent, in +his Oeuvres, Frankfort and Paris, 1888, pp. 399 et seq. For Turgot, see +the Collections des Economistes, Paris, 1844, vols. iii and iv; also +Blanqui, Histoire de l'Economie Politique, English translation, p. 373. +For an excellent though brief summary of the efforts of the Jesuits to +explain away the old action of the Church, see Lecky, vol. ii, pp +256, 257. For the action of Benedict XIV, see Reusch, Der Index der +Vorbotenen Bucher, Bonn, 1885, vol. ii, pp 847, 848. For a comical +picture of the "quagmire' into which the hierarchy brought itself in the +squaring of its practice with its theory, see Dollinger, as above, pp. +227, 228. For cunningly vague statements of the action of Benedict XIV, +see Mastrofini, Sur l'Usure, French translation, Lyons, 1834, pp. 125, +255. The abbate, as will be seen, has not the slightest hesitaion in +telling an untruth in order to preserve the consistency of papal action +in the matter of usury—e.g., pp. 93, 94 96, and elsewhere. +</pre> + <p> + Yet in this case, as in others, insurrections against the sway of + scientific truth appeared among some overzealous religionists. When the + Sorbonne, having retreated from its old position, armed itself with new + casuistries against those who held to its earlier decisions, sundry + provincial doctors in theology protested indignantly, making the old + citations from the Scriptures, fathers, saints, doctors, popes, councils, + and canonists. Again the Roman court intervened. In 1830 the Inquisition + at Rome, with the approval of Pius VIII, though still declining to commit + itself on the DOCTRINE involved, decreed that, as to PRACTICE, confessors + should no longer disturb lenders of money at legal interest. + </p> + <p> + But even this did not quiet the more conscientious theologians. The old + weapons were again furbished and hurled by the Abbe Laborde, Vicar of the + Metropolitan Archdiocese of Auch, and by the Abbe Dennavit, Professor of + Theology at Lyons. Good Abbe Dennavit declared that he refused absolution + to those who took interest and to priests who pretend that the sanction of + the civil law is sufficient. + </p> + <p> + But the "wisdom of the serpent" was again brought into requisition, and + early in the decade between 1830 and 1840 the Abbate Mastrofini issued a + work on usury, which, he declared on its title-page, demonstrated that + "moderate usury is not contrary to Holy Scripture, or natural law, or the + decisions of the Church." Nothing can be more comical than the + suppressions of truth, evasions of facts, jugglery with phrases, and + perversions of history, to which the abbate is forced to resort throughout + his book in order to prove that the Church has made no mistake. In the + face of scores of explicit deliverances and decrees of fathers, doctors, + popes, and councils against the taking of any interest whatever for money, + he coolly pretended that what they had declared against was EXORBITANT + interest. He made a merit of the action of the Church, and showed that its + course had been a blessing to humanity. But his masterpiece is in dealing + with the edicts of Clement V and Benedict XIV. As to the first, it will be + remembered that Clement, in accord with the Council of Vienne, had + declared that "any one who shall pertinaciously presume to affirm that the + taking of interest for money is not a sin, we decree him to be a heiretic + fit for punishment," and we have seen that Benedict XIV did not at all + deviate from the doctrines of his predecessors. Yet Mastrofini is equal to + his task, and brings out, as the conclusion of his book, the statement put + upon his title-page, that what the Church condemns is only EXORBITANT + interest. + </p> + <p> + This work was sanctioned by various high ecclesiastical dignitaries, and + served its purpose; for it covered the retreat of the Church. + </p> + <p> + In 1872 the Holy Office, answering a question solemnly put by the Bishop + of Ariano, as solemnly declared that those who take eight per cent + interest per annum are "not to be disquieted"; and in 1873 appeared a book + published under authority from the Holy See, allowing the faithful to take + moderate interest under condition that any future decisions of the Pope + should be implicitly obeyed. Social science as applied to political + economy had gained a victory final and complete. The Torlonia family at + Rome to-day, with its palaces, chapels, intermarriages, affiliations, and + papal favour—all won by lending money at interest, and by liberal + gifts, from the profits of usury, to the Holy See—is but one out of + many growths of its kind on ramparts long since surrendered and + deserted.(458) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (458) For the decree forbidding confessors to trouble lenders of money +at legal interest, see Addis and Arnold, Catholic Dictionary, as above; +also Mastrofini, as above, in the appendix, where various other +recent Roman decrees are given. As to the controversy generally, see +Mastrofini; also La Replique des douze Docteurs, cited by Guillaumin and +Coquelin; also Reusch, vol. ii, p. 850. As an example of Mastrofini's +way of making black appear white, compare the Latin text of the decree +on page 97 with his statements regarding it; see also his cunning +substitution of the new significance of the word usury for the old in +various parts of his book. A good historical presentation of the general +subject will be found in Roscher, Geschichte der National-Oeconomie in +Deutschland, Munchen, 1874, under articles Wucher and Zinsnehmen. For +France, see especially Petit, Traite de l'Usure, Paris, 1840; and for +Germany, see Neumann, Geschichte des Wuchers in Deutschland, Halle, +1865. For the view of a modern leader of thought in this field, see +Jeremy Bentham, Defence of Usury, Letter X. For an admirable piece of +research into the nicer points involved in the whole subject, see H. +C. Lea, The Ecclesiatical Treatment of Usury, in the Yale Review for +February, 1894. +</pre> + <p> + The dealings of theology with public economy were by no means confined to + the taking of interest for money. It would be interesting to note the + restrictions placed upon commerce by the Church prohibition of commercial + intercourse with infidels, against which the Republic of Venice fought a + good fight; to note how, by a most curious perversion of Scripture in the + Greek Church, many of the peasantry of Russia were prevented from raising + and eating potatoes; how, in Scotland, at the beginning of this century, + the use of fanning mills for winnowing grain was widely denounced as + contrary to the text, "The wind bloweth where it listeth," etc., as + leaguing with Satan, who is "Prince of the powers of the air," and + therefore as sufficient cause for excommunication from the Scotch Church. + Instructive it would be also to note how the introduction of railways was + declared by an archbishop of the French Church to be an evidence of the + divine displeasure against country innkeepers who set meat before their + guests on fast days, and who were now punished by seeing travellers + carried by their doors; how railways and telegraphs were denounced from a + few noted pulpits as heralds of Antichrist; and how in Protestant England + the curate of Rotherhithe, at the breaking in of the Thames Tunnel, so + destructive to life and property, declared it from his pulpit a just + judgment upon the presumptuous aspirations of mortal man. + </p> + <p> + The same tendency is seen in the opposition of conscientious men to the + taking of the census in Sweden and the United States, on account of the + terms in which the numbering of Israel is spoken of in the Old Testament. + Religious scruples on similar grounds have also been avowed against so + beneficial a thing as life insurance. + </p> + <p> + Apparently unimportant as these manifestations are, they indicate a + widespread tendency; in the application of scriptural declarations to + matters of social economy, which has not yet ceased, though it is fast + fading away.(459) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (459) For various interdicts laid upon commerce by the Church, see Heyd, +Histoire du Commerce du Levant au Moyen-Age, Leipsic, 1886, vol. ii, +passim. For the injury done to commerce by prohibition of intercourse +with the infidel, see Lindsay, History of Merchant Shipping, London, +1874, vol. ii. For superstitions regarding the introduction of the +potato in Russia, and the name "devil's root" given it, see Hellwald, +Culturgeschichte, vol. ii, p. 476; also Haxthausen, La Russie. For +opposition to winnowing machines, see Burton, History of Scotland, vol. +viii, p. 511; also Lecky, Eighteenth Century, vol. ii, p. 83; also Mause +Headrigg's views in Scott's Old Mortality, chap. vii. For the case of a +person debarred from the communion for "raising the devil's wind" with +a winnowing machine, see Works of Sir J. Y. Simpson, vol. ii. Those +doubting the authority or motives of Simpson may be reminded that he +was to the day of his death one of the strictest adherants to Scotch +orthodoxy. As to the curate of Rotherhithe, see Journal of Sir I. Brunel +for May 20, 1827, in Life of I. K. Brunel, p. 30. As to the conclusions +drawn from the numbering of Israel, see Michaelis, Commentaries on the +Laws of Moses, 1874, vol. ii, p. 3. The author of this work himself +witnessed the reluctance of a very conscientious man to answer the +questions of a census marshal, Mr. Lewis Hawley, of Syracuse, New York; +and this reluctance was based upon the reasons assigned in II Samuel +xxiv, 1, and I Chronicles xxi,1, for the numbering of the children of +Israel. +</pre> + <p> + Worthy of especial study, too, would be the evolution of the modern + methods of raising and bettering the condition of the poor,—the + evolution, especially, of the idea that men are to be helped to help + themselves, in opposition to the old theories of indiscriminate giving, + which, taking root in some of the most beautiful utterances of our sacred + books, grew in the warm atmosphere of medieval devotion into great systems + for the pauperizing of the labouring classes. Here, too, scientific modes + of thought in social science have given a new and nobler fruitage to the + whole growth of Christian benevolence.(460) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (460) Among the vast number of authorities regarding the evolution of +better methods in dealing with pauperism, I would call attention to +a work which is especially suggestive—Behrends, Christianity and +Socialism, New York, 1886. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XX. FROM THE DIVINE ORACLES TO THE HIGHER CRITICISM. + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0084" id="link2H_4_0084"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I. THE OLDER INTERPRETATION. + </h2> + <p> + The great sacred books of the world are the most precious of human + possessions. They embody the deepest searchings into the most vital + problems of humanity in all its stages: the naive guesses of the world's + childhood, the opening conceptions of its youth, the more fully rounded + beliefs of its maturity. + </p> + <p> + These books, no matter how unhistorical in parts and at times, are + profoundly true. They mirror the evolution of man's loftiest aspirations, + hopes, loves, consolations, and enthusiasms; his hates and fears; his + views of his origin and destiny; his theories of his rights and duties; + and these not merely in their lights but in their shadows. Therefore it is + that they contain the germs of truths most necessary in the evolution of + humanity, and give to these germs the environment and sustenance which + best insure their growth and strength. + </p> + <p> + With wide differences in origin and character, this sacred literature has + been developed and has exercised its influence in obedience to certain + general laws. First of these in time, if not in importance, is that which + governs its origin: in all civilizations we find that the Divine Spirit + working in the mind of man shapes his sacred books first of all out of the + chaos of myth and legend; and of these books, when life is thus breathed + into them, the fittest survive. + </p> + <p> + So broad and dense is this atmosphere of myth and legend enveloping them + that it lingers about them after they have been brought forth full-orbed; + and, sometimes, from it are even produced secondary mythical and legendary + concretions—satellites about these greater orbs of early thought. Of + these secondary growths one may be mentioned as showing how rich in + myth-making material was the atmosphere which enveloped our own earlier + sacred literature. + </p> + <p> + In the third century before Christ there began to be elaborated among the + Jewish scholars of Alexandria, then the great centre of human thought, a + Greek translation of the main books constituting the Old Testament. + Nothing could be more natural at that place and time than such a + translation; yet the growth of explanatory myth and legend around it was + none the less luxuriant. There was indeed a twofold growth. Among the Jews + favourable to the new version a legend rose which justified it. This + legend in its first stage was to the effect that the Ptolemy then on the + Egyptian throne had, at the request of his chief librarian, sent to + Jerusalem for translators; that the Jewish high priest Eleazar had sent to + the king a most precious copy of the Scriptures from the temple at + Jerusalem, and six most venerable, devout, and learned scholars from each + of the twelve tribes of Israel; that the number of translators thus + corresponded with the mysterious seventy-two appellations of God; and that + the combined efforts of these seventy-two men produced a marvellously + perfect translation. + </p> + <p> + But in that atmosphere of myth and marvel the legend continued to grow, + and soon we have it blooming forth yet more gorgeously in the statement + that King Ptolemy ordered each of the seventy-two to make by himself a + full translation of the entire Old Testament, and shut up each translator + in a separate cell on the island of Pharos, secluding him there until the + work was done; that the work of each was completed in exactly seventy-two + days; and that when, at the end of the seventy-two days, the seventy-two + translations were compared, each was found exactly like all the others. + This showed clearly Jehovah's APPROVAL. + </p> + <p> + But out of all this myth and legend there was also evolved an account of a + very different sort. The Jews who remained faithful to the traditions of + their race regarded this Greek version as a profanation, and therefore + there grew up the legend that on the completion of the work there was + darkness over the whole earth during three days. This showed clearly + Jehovah's DISAPPROVAL. + </p> + <p> + These well-known legends, which arose within what—as compared with + any previous time—was an exceedingly enlightened period, and which + were steadfastly believed by a vast multitude of Jews and Christians for + ages, are but single examples among scores which show how inevitably such + traditions regarding sacred books are developed in the earlier stages of + civilization, when men explain everything by miracle and nothing by + law.(461) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (461) For the legend regarding the Septaguint, especially as developed +by the letters of Pseudo-Aristeas, and for quaint citations from the +fathers regarding it, see The History of the Seventy-two Interpretors, +from the Greek of Aristeas, translated by Mr. Lewis, London, 1715; also +Clement of Alexandria, in the Ante-Nicene Christian Library, Edinburgh, +1867, p. 448. For interesting summaries showing the growth of the +story, see Drummond, Philo Judaeus and the Growth of the Alexandrian +Philosophy, London, 1888, vol. i, pp. 231 et seq.; also Renan, Histoire +du Peuple Israel, vol. iv, chap. iv; also, for Philo Judaeus's part in +developing the legend, see Rev. Dr. Sanday's Bampton Lectures for 1893, +on Inspiration, pp. 86, 87. +</pre> + <p> + As the second of these laws governing the evolution of sacred literature + may be mentioned that which we have constantly seen so effective in the + growth of theological ideas—that to which Comte gave the name of the + Law of Wills and Causes. Obedient to this, man attributes to the Supreme + Being a physical, intellectual, and moral structure like his own; hence it + is that the votary of each of the great world religions ascribes to its + sacred books what he considers absolute perfection: he imagines them to be + what he himself would give the world, were he himself infinitely good, + wise, and powerful. + </p> + <p> + A very simple analogy might indeed show him that even a literature + emanating from an all-wise, beneficent, and powerful author might not seem + perfect when judged by a human standard; for he has only to look about him + in the world to find that the work which he attributes to an all-wise, + all-beneficent, and all-powerful Creator is by no means free from evil and + wrong. + </p> + <p> + But this analogy long escapes him, and the exponent of each great religion + proves to his own satisfaction, and to the edification of his fellows, + that their own sacred literature is absolutely accurate in statement, + infinitely profound in meaning, and miraculously perfect in form. From + these premises also he arrives at the conclusion that his own sacred + literature is unique; that no other sacred book can have emanated from a + divine source; and that all others claiming to be sacred are impostures. + </p> + <p> + Still another law governing the evolution of sacred literature in every + great world religion is, that when the books which compose it are once + selected and grouped they come to be regarded as a final creation from + which nothing can be taken away, and of which even error in form, if + sanctioned by tradition, may not be changed. + </p> + <p> + The working of this law has recently been seen on a large scale. + </p> + <p> + A few years since, a body of chosen scholars, universally acknowledged to + be the most fit for the work, undertook, at the call of English-speaking + Christendom, to revise the authorized English version of the Bible. + </p> + <p> + Beautiful as was that old version, there was abundant reason for a + revision. The progress of biblical scholarship had revealed multitudes of + imperfections and not a few gross errors in the work of the early + translators, and these, if uncorrected, were sure to bring the sacred + volume into discredit. + </p> + <p> + Nothing could be more reverent than the spirit of the revisers, and the + nineteenth century has known few historical events of more significant and + touching beauty than the participation in the holy communion by all these + scholars—prelates, presbyters, ministers, and laymen of churches + most widely differing in belief and observance—kneeling side by side + at the little altar in Westminster Abbey. + </p> + <p> + Nor could any work have been more conservative and cautious than theirs; + as far as possible they preserved the old matter and form with scrupulous + care. + </p> + <p> + Yet their work was no sooner done than it was bitterly attacked and widely + condemned; to this day it is largely regarded with dislike. In Great + Britain, in America, in Australia, the old version, with its glaring + misconceptions, mistranslations, and interpolations, is still read in + preference to the new; the great body of English-speaking Christians + clearly preferring the accustomed form of words given by the + seventeenth-century translators, rather than a nearer approach to the + exact teaching of the Holy Ghost. + </p> + <p> + Still another law is, that when once a group of sacred books has been + evolved—even though the group really be a great library of most + dissimilar works, ranging in matter from the hundredth Psalm to the Song + of Songs, and in manner from the sublimity of Isaiah to the offhand + story-telling of Jonah—all come to be thought one inseparable mass + of interpenetrating parts; every statement in each fitting exactly and + miraculously into each statement in every other; and each and every one, + and all together, literally true to fact, and at the same time full of + hidden meanings. + </p> + <p> + The working of these and other laws governing the evolution of sacred + literature is very clearly seen in the great rabbinical schools which + flourished at Jerusalem, Tiberias, and elsewhere, after the return of the + Jews from the Babylonian captivity, and especially as we approach the time + of Christ. These schools developed a subtlety in the study of the Old + Testament which seems almost preternatural. The resultant system was + mainly a jugglery with words, phrases, and numbers, which finally became a + "sacred science," with various recognised departments, in which + interpretation was carried on sometimes by attaching a numerical value to + letters; sometimes by interchange of letters from differently arranged + alphabets; sometimes by the making of new texts out of the initial letters + of the old; and with ever-increasing subtlety. + </p> + <p> + Such efforts as these culminated fitly in the rabbinical declaration that + each passage in the law has seventy distinct meanings, and that God + himself gives three hours every day to their study. + </p> + <p> + After this the Jewish world was prepared for anything, and it does not + surprise us to find such discoveries in the domain of ethical culture as + the doctrine that, for inflicting the forty stripes save one upon those + who broke the law, the lash should be braided of ox-hide and ass-hide; + and, as warrant for this construction of the lash, the text, "The ox + knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib, but Israel doth not + know"; and, as the logic connecting text and lash, the statement that + Jehovah evidently intended to command that "the men who know not shall be + beaten by those animals whose knowledge shames them." + </p> + <p> + By such methods also were revealed such historical treasures as that Og, + King of Bashan, escaped the deluge by wading after Noah's ark. + </p> + <p> + There were, indeed, noble exceptions to this kind of teaching. It can not + be forgotten that Rabbi Hillel formulated the golden rule, which had + before him been given to the extreme Orient by Confucius, and which + afterward received a yet more beautiful and positive emphasis from Jesus + of Nazareth; but the seven rules of interpretation laid down by Hillel + were multiplied and refined by men like Rabbi Ismael and Rabbi Eleazar + until they justified every absurd subtlety.(462) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (462) For a multitude of amusing examples of rabbinical interpretations, +see an article in Blackwood's Magazine for November, 1882. For a more +general discussion, see Archdeacon Farrar's History of Interpretation, +lect. i and ii, and Rev. Prof. H. P. Smith's Inspiration and Inerrancy, +Cincinnati, 1893, especially chap. iv; also Reuss, History of the New +Testament, English translation, pp. 527, 528. +</pre> + <p> + An eminent scholar has said that while the letter of Scripture became + ossified in Palestine, it became volatilized at Alexandria; and the truth + of this remark was proved by the Alexandrian Jewish theologians just + before the beginning of our era. + </p> + <p> + This, too, was in obedience to a law of development, which is, that when + literal interpretation clashes with increasing knowledge or with progress + in moral feeling, theologians take refuge in mystic meanings—a law + which we see working in all great religions, from the Brahmans finding + hidden senses in the Vedas, to Plato and the Stoics finding them in the + Greek myths; and from the Sofi reading new meanings into the Koran, to + eminent Christian divines of the nineteenth century giving a non-natural + sense to some of the plainest statements in the Bible. + </p> + <p> + Nothing is more natural than all this. When naive statements of sacred + writers, in accord with the ethics of early ages, make Brahma perform + atrocities which would disgrace a pirate; and Jupiter take part in + adventures worthy of Don Juan; and Jahveh practise trickery, cruelty, and + high-handed injustice which would bring any civilized mortal into the + criminal courts, the invention of allegory is the one means of saving the + divine authority as soon as men reach higher planes of civilization. + </p> + <p> + The great early master in this evolution of allegory, for the satisfaction + of Jews and Christians, was Philo: by him its use came in as never before. + The four streams of the garden of Eden thus become the four virtues; + Abraham's country and kindred, from which he was commanded to depart, the + human body and its members; the five cities of Sodom, the five senses; the + Euphrates, correction of manners. By Philo and his compeers even the most + insignificant words and phrases, and those especially, were held to + conceal the most precious meanings. + </p> + <p> + A perfectly natural and logical result of this view was reached when + Philo, saturated as he was with Greek culture and nourished on pious + traditions of the utterances at Delphi and Dodona, spoke reverently of the + Jewish Scriptures as "oracles". Oracles they became: as oracles they + appeared in the early history of the Christian Church; and oracles they + remained for centuries: eternal life or death, infinite happiness or + agony, as well as ordinary justice in this world, being made to depend on + shifting interpretations of a long series of dark and doubtful utterances—interpretations + frequently given by men who might have been prophets and apostles, but who + had become simply oracle-mongers. + </p> + <p> + Pressing these oracles into the service of science, Philo became the + forerunner of that long series of theologians who, from Augustine and + Cosmas to Mr. Gladstone, have attempted to extract from scriptural myth + and legend profound contributions to natural science. Thus he taught that + the golden candlesticks in the tabernacle symbolized the planets, the high + priest's robe the universe, and the bells upon it the harmony of earth and + water—whatever that may mean. So Cosmas taught, a thousand years + later, that the table of shewbread in the tabernacle showed forth the form + and construction of the world; and Mr. Gladstone hinted, more than a + thousand years later still, that Neptune's trident had a mysterious + connection with the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.(463) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (463) For Philo Judaeus, see Yonge's translation, Bohn's edition; see +also Sanday, Inspiration, pp. 78-85. For admirable general remarks on +this period in history of exegesis, see Bartlett, Bampton Lectures, +1888, p. 29. For efforts in general to save the credit of myths by +allegorical interpretation, and for those of Philo in particular, see +Drummond, Philo Judaeus, London, 1888, vol. i, pp. 18, 19, and notes. +For interesting examples of Alexandrian exegesis and for Philo's +application of the term "oracle" to the Jewish Scriptures, see Farrar, +History of Interpretation, p. 147 and note. For his discovery of symbols +of the universe in the furniture of the tabernacle, see Drummond, as +above, pp. 269 et seq. For the general subject, admirably discussed +from a historical point of view, see the Rev. Edwin Hatch, D. D., The +Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian Church, Hibbert +Lectures for 1888, chap. iii. For Cosmas, see my chapters on Geography +and Astronomy. For Mr. Gladstone's view of the connection between +Neptune's trident and the doctrine of the Trinity, see his Juventus +Mundi. +</pre> + <p> + These methods, as applied to the Old Testament, had appeared at times in + the New; in spite of the resistance of Tertullian and Irenaeus, they were + transmitted to the Church; and in the works of the early fathers they + bloomed forth luxuriantly. + </p> + <p> + Justin Martyr and Clement of Alexandria vigorously extended them. Typical + of Justin's method is his finding, in a very simple reference by Isaiah to + Damascus, Samaria, and Assyria, a clear prophecy of the three wise men of + the East who brought gifts to the infant Saviour; and in the bells on the + priest's robe a prefiguration of the twelve apostles. Any difficulty + arising from the fact that the number of bells is not specified in + Scripture, Justin overcame by insisting that David referred to this + prefiguration in the nineteenth Psalm: "Their sound is gone out through + all the earth, and their words to the end of the world." + </p> + <p> + Working in this vein, Clement of Alexandria found in the form, dimensions, + and colour of the Jewish tabernacle a whole wealth of interpretation—the + altar of incense representing the earth placed at the centre of the + universe; the high priest's robe the visible world; the jewels on the + priest's robe the zodiac; and Abraham's three days' journey to Mount + Moriah the three stages of the soul in its progress toward the knowledge + of God. Interpreting the New Testament, he lessened any difficulties + involved in the miracle of the barley loaves and fishes by suggesting that + what it really means is that Jesus gave mankind a preparatory training for + the gospel by means of the law and philosophy; because, as he says, + barley, like the law, ripens sooner than wheat, which represents the + gospel; and because, just as fishes grow in the waves of the ocean, so + philosophy grew in the waves of the Gentile world. + </p> + <p> + Out of reasonings like these, those who followed, especially Cosmas, + developed, as we have seen, a complete theological science of geography + and astronomy.(464) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (464) For Justin, see the Dialogue with Trypho, chaps. xlii, lxxvi, and +lxxxiii. For Clement of Alexandria, see his Miscellanies, book v, +chaps. vi and xi, and book vii, chap. xvi, and especially Hatch, Hibbert +Lectures, as above, pp. 76, 77. As to the loose views of the canon held +by these two fathers and others of their time, see Ladd, Doctrine of +the Sacred Scriptures, vol. ii, pp. 86, 88; also Diestel, Geschichte des +alten Testaments. +</pre> + <p> + But the instrument in exegesis which was used with most cogent force was + the occult significance of certain numbers. The Chaldean and Egyptian + researches of our own time have revealed the main source of this line of + thought; the speculations of Plato upon it are well known; but among the + Jews and in the early Church it grew into something far beyond the wildest + imaginings of the priests of Memphis and Babylon. + </p> + <p> + Philo had found for the elucidation of Scripture especially deep meanings + in the numbers four, six, and seven; but other interpreters soon surpassed + him. At the very outset this occult power was used in ascertaining the + canonical books of Scripture. Josephus argued that, since there were + twenty-two letters in the Hebrew alphabet, there must be twenty-two sacred + books in the Old Testament; other Jewish authorities thought that there + should be twenty-four books, on account of the twenty-four watches in the + temple. St. Jerome wavered between the argument based upon the twenty-two + letters in the Hebrew alphabet and that suggested by the twenty-four + elders in the Apocalypse. Hilary of Poitiers argued that there must be + twenty-four books, on account of the twenty-four letters in the Greek + alphabet. Origen found an argument for the existence of exactly four + gospels in the existence of just four elements. Irenaeus insisted that + there could be neither more nor fewer than four gospels, since the earth + has four quarters, the air four winds, and the cherubim four faces; and he + denounced those who declined to accept this reasoning as "vain, ignorant, + and audacious."(465) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (465) For Jerome and Origen, see notes on pages following. For Irenaeus, +see Irenaeus, Adversus Hoeres., lib. iii, cap. xi, S 8. For the general +subject, see Sanday, Inspiration, p. 115; also Farrar and H. P. Smith +as above. For a recent very full and very curious statement from a Roman +Catholic authority regarding views cherished in the older Church as to +the symbolism of numbers, see Detzel, Christliche Iconographie, Freiburg +in Bresigau, Band i, Einleitung, p. 4. +</pre> + <p> + But during the first half of the third century came one who exercised a + still stronger influence in this direction—a great man who, while + rendering precious services, did more than any other to fasten upon the + Church a system which has been one of its heaviest burdens for more than + sixteen hundred years: this was Origen. Yet his purpose was noble and his + work based on profound thought. He had to meet the leading philosophers of + the pagan world, to reply to their arguments against the Old Testament, + and especially to break the force of their taunts against its imputation + of human form, limitations, passions, weaknesses, and even immoralities to + the Almighty. + </p> + <p> + Starting with a mistaken translation of a verse in the book of Proverbs, + Origen presented as a basis for his main structure the idea of a threefold + sense of Scripture: the literal, the moral, and the mystic—corresponding + to the Platonic conception of the threefold nature of man. As results of + this we have such masterpieces as his proof, from the fifth verse of + chapter xxv of Job, that the stars are living beings, and from the + well-known passage in the nineteenth chapter of St. Matthew his warrant + for self-mutilation. But his great triumphs were in the allegorical + method. By its use the Bible was speedily made an oracle indeed, or, + rather, a book of riddles. A list of kings in the Old Testament thus + becomes an enumeration of sins; the waterpots of stone, "containing two or + three firkins apiece," at the marriage of Cana, signify the literal, + moral, and spiritual sense of Scripture; the ass upon which the Saviour + rode on his triumphal entry into Jerusalem becomes the Old Testament, the + foal the New Testament, and the two apostles who went to loose them the + moral and mystical senses; blind Bartimeus throwing off his coat while + hastening to Jesus, opens a whole treasury of oracular meanings. + </p> + <p> + The genius and power of Origen made a great impression on the strong + thinkers who followed him. St. Jerome called him "the greatest master in + the Church since the apostles," and Athanasius was hardly less emphatic. + </p> + <p> + The structure thus begun was continued by leading theologians during the + centuries following: St. Hilary of Poitiers—"the Athanasius of Gaul"—produced + some wonderful results of this method; but St. Jerome, inspired by the + example of the man whom he so greatly admired, went beyond him. A triumph + of his exegesis is seen in his statement that the Shunamite damsel who was + selected to cherish David in his old age signified heavenly wisdom. + </p> + <p> + The great mind of St. Augustine was drawn largely into this kind of + creation, and nothing marks more clearly the vast change which had come + over the world than the fact that this greatest of the early Christian + thinkers turned from the broader paths opened by Plato and Aristotle into + that opened by Clement of Alexandria. + </p> + <p> + In the mystic power of numbers to reveal the sense of Scripture Augustine + found especial delight. He tells us that there is deep meaning in sundry + scriptural uses of the number forty, and especially as the number of days + required for fasting. Forty, he reminds us, is four times ten. Now, four, + he says, is the number especially representing time, the day and the year + being each divided into four parts; while ten, being made up of three and + seven, represents knowledge of the Creator and creature, three referring + to the three persons in the triune Creator, and seven referring to the + three elements, heart, soul, and mind, taken in connection with the four + elements, fire, air, earth, and water, which go to make up the creature. + Therefore this number ten, representing knowledge, being multiplied by + four, representing time, admonishes us to live during time according to + knowledge—that is, to fast for forty days. Referring to such misty + methods as these, which lead the reader to ask himself whether he is + sleeping or waking, St. Augustine remarks that "ignorance of numbers + prevents us from understanding such things in Scripture." But perhaps the + most amazing example is to be seen in his notes on the hundred and fifty + and three fishes which, according to St. John's Gospel, were caught by St. + Peter and the other apostles. Some points in his long development of this + subject may be selected to show what the older theological method could be + made to do for a great mind. He tells us that the hundred and fifty and + three fishes embody a mystery; that the number ten, evidently as the + number of the commandments, indicates the law; but, as the law without the + spirit only kills, we must add the seven gifts of the spirit, and we thus + have the number seventeen, which signifies the old and new dispensations; + then, if we add together every several number which seventeen contains + from one to seventeen inclusive, the result is a hundred and fifty and + three—the number of the fishes. With this sort of reasoning he finds + profound meanings in the number of furlongs mentioned in he sixth chapter + of St. John. Referring to the fact that the disciples had rowed about + "twenty-five or thirty furlongs," he declares that "twenty-five typifies + the law, because it is five times five, but the law was imperfect before + the gospel came; now perfection is comprised in six, since God in six days + perfected the world, hence five is multiplied by six that the law may be + perfected by the gospel, and six times five is thirty." + </p> + <p> + But Augustine's exploits in exegesis were not all based on numerals; he is + sometimes equally profound in other modes. Thus he tells us that the + condemnation of the serpent to eat dust typifies the sin of curiosity, + since in eating dust he "penetrates the obscure and shadowy"; and that + Noah's ark was "pitched within and without with pitch" to show the safety + of the Church from the leaking in of heresy. + </p> + <p> + Still another exploit—one at which the Church might well have stood + aghast—was his statement that the drunkenness of Noah prefigured the + suffering and death of Christ. It is but just to say that he was not the + original author of this interpretation: it had been presented long before + by St. Cyprian. But this was far from Augustine's worst. Perhaps no + interpretation of Scripture has ever led to more cruel and persistent + oppression, torture, and bloodshed than his reading into one of the most + beautiful parables of Jesus of Nazareth—into the words "Compel them + to come in"—a warrant for religious persecution: of all unintended + blasphemies since the world began, possibly the most appalling. Another + strong man follows to fasten these methods on the Church: St. Gregory the + Great. In his renowned work on the book of Job, the Magna Moralia, given + to the world at the end of the sixth century, he lays great stress on the + deep mystical meanings of the statement that Job had seven sons. He thinks + the seven sons typify the twelve apostles, for "the apostles were selected + through the sevenfold grace of the Spirit; moreover, twelve is produced + from seven—that is, the two parts of seven, four and three, when + multiplied together give twelve." He also finds deep significance in the + number of the apostles; this number being evidently determined by a + multiplication of the number of persons in the Trinity by the number of + quarters of the globe. Still, to do him justice, it must be said that in + some parts of his exegesis the strong sense which was one of his most + striking characteristics crops out in a way very refreshing. Thus, + referring to a passage in the first chapter of Job, regarding the oxen + which were ploughing and the asses which were feeding beside them, he + tells us pithily that these typify two classes of Christians: the oxen, + the energetic Christians who do the work of the Church; the asses, the + lazy Christians who merely feed.(466) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (466) For Origen, see the De Principiis, book iv, chaps. i-vii et seq., +Crombie's translation; also the Contra Celsum, vol. vi, p. 70; vol. +vii, p. 20, etc.; also various citations in Farrar. For Hilary, see his +Tractatus super Psalmos, cap. ix, li, etc. in Migne, vol. ix, and De +Trinitate, lib. ii, cap. ii. For Jerome's interpretation of the text +relating to the Shunamite woman, see Epist. lii, in Migne, vol. xxii, +pp. 527, 528. For Augustine's use of numbers, see the De Doctrina +Christiana, lib. ii, cap. xvi; and for the explanation of the draught of +fishes, see Augustine in, In Johan. Evangel., tractat. cxxii; and on the +twenty-five to thirty furlongs, ibid., tract. xxv, cap. 6; and for the +significance of the serpent eating dust, De Gen., lib. ii, c. 18. or the +view that the drunkenness of Noah prefigured the suffering of Christ, as +held by SS. Cyprian and Augustine, see Farrar, as above, pp. 181, 238. +For St. Gregory, see the Magna Moralia, lib. i, cap. xiv. +</pre> + <p> + Thus began the vast theological structure of oracular interpretation + applied to the Bible. As we have seen, the men who prepared the ground for + it were the rabbis of Palestine and the Hellenized Jews of Alexandria; and + the four great men who laid its foundation courses were Origen, St. + Augustine, St. Jerome, and St. Gregory. + </p> + <p> + During the ten centuries following the last of these men this structure + continued to rise steadily above the plain meanings of Scripture. The + Christian world rejoiced in it, and the few great thinkers who dared bring + the truth to bear upon it were rejected. It did indeed seem at one period + in the early Church that a better system might be developed. The School of + Antioch, especially as represented by Chrysostom, appeared likely to lead + in this better way, but the dominant forces were too strong; the passion + for myth and marvel prevailed over the love of real knowledge, and the + reasonings of Chrysostom and his compeers were neglected.(467) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (467) For the work of the School of Antioch, and especially of +Chrysostom, see the eloquent tribute to it by Farrar, as above. +</pre> + <p> + In the ninth century came another effort to present the claims of right + reason. The first man prominent in this was St. Agobard, Bishop of Lyons, + whom an eminent historian has well called the clearest head of his time. + With the same insight which penetrated the fallacies and follies of image + worship, belief in witchcraft persecution, the ordeal, and the judicial + duel, he saw the futility of this vast fabric of interpretation, protested + against the idea that the Divine Spirit extended its inspiration to the + mere words of Scripture, and asked a question which has resounded through + every generation since: "If you once begin such a system, who can measure + the absurdity which will follow?" + </p> + <p> + During the same century another opponent of this dominant system appeared: + John Scotus Erigena. He contended that "reason and authority come alike + from the one source of Divine Wisdom"; that the fathers, great as their + authority is, often contradict each other; and that, in last resort, + reason must be called in to decide between them. + </p> + <p> + But the evolution of unreason continued: Agobard was unheeded, and Erigena + placed under the ban by two councils—his work being condemned by a + synod as a "Commentum Diaboli." Four centuries later Honorius III ordered + it to be burned, as "teeming with the venom of hereditary depravity"; and + finally, after eight centuries, Pope Gregory XIII placed it on the Index, + where, with so many other works which have done good service to humanity, + it remains to this day. Nor did Abelard, who, three centuries after + Agobard and Erigena, made an attempt in some respects like theirs, have + any better success: his fate at the hands of St. Bernard and the Council + of Sens the world knows by heart. Far more consonant with the spirit of + the universal Church was the teaching in the twelfth century of the great + Hugo of St. Victor, conveyed in these ominous words, "Learn first what is + to be believed" (Disce primo quod credendum est), meaning thereby that one + should first accept doctrines, and then find texts to confirm them. + </p> + <p> + These principles being dominant, the accretions to the enormous fabric of + interpretation went steadily on. Typical is the fact that the Venerable + Bede contributed to it the doctrine that, in the text mentioning Elkanah + and his two wives, Elkanah means Christ and the two wives the Synagogue + and the Church. Even such men as Alfred the Great and St. Thomas Aquinas + were added to the forces at work in building above the sacred books this + prodigious structure of sophistry. + </p> + <p> + Perhaps nothing shows more clearly the tenacity of the old system of + interpretation than the sermons of Savonarola. During the last decade of + the fifteenth century, just at the close of the medieval period, he was + engaged in a life-and-death struggle at Florence. No man ever preached + more powerfully the gospel of righteousness; none ever laid more stress on + conduct; even Luther was not more zealous for reform or more careless of + tradition; and yet we find the great Florentine apostle and martyr + absolutely tied fast to the old system of allegorical interpretation. The + autograph notes of his sermons, still preserved in his cell at San Marco, + show this abundantly. Thus we find him attaching to the creation of + grasses and plants on the third day an allegorical connection with the + "multitude of the elect" and with the "sound doctrines of the Church," and + to the creation of land animals on the sixth day a similar relation to + "the Jewish people" and to "Christians given up to things earthly."(468) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (468) For Agobard, see the Liber adversus Fredigisum, cap. xii; also +Reuter's Relig. Aufklarung im Mittelalter, vol. i, p. 24; also Poole, +Illustrations of the History of Medieval Thought, London, 1884, pp. 38 +et seq. For Erigena, see his De Divisione Naturae, lib. iv, cap. v; also +i, cap. lxvi-lxxi; and for general account, see Ueberweg, History +of Philosophy, New York, 1871, vol. i, pp. 358 et seq.; and for the +treatment of his work by the Church, see the edition of the Index under +Leo XIII, 1881. For Abelard, see the Sic et Non, Prologue, Migne, vol. +iii, pp. 371-377. For Hugo of St. Victor, see Erudit. Didask., lib. vii, +vi, 4, in Migne, clxxvi. For Savonarola's interpretations, see various +references to his preaching in Villari's life of Savonarola, English +translation, London, 1890, and especially the exceedingly interesting +table in the appendix to vol. i, chap. vii. +</pre> + <p> + The revival of learning in the fifteenth century seemed likely to + undermine this older structure. + </p> + <p> + Then it was that Lorenzo Valla brought to bear on biblical research, for + the first time, the spirit of modern criticism. By truly scientific + methods he proved the famous "Letter of Christ to Abgarus" a forgery; the + "Donation of Constantine," one of the great foundations of the + ecclesiastical power in temporal things, a fraud; and the "Apostles' + Creed" a creation which post-dated the apostles by several centuries. Of + even more permanent influence was his work upon the New Testament, in + which he initiated the modern method of comparing manuscripts to find what + the sacred text really is. At an earlier or later period he would + doubtless have paid for his temerity with his life; fortunately, just at + that time the ruling pontiff and his Contemporaries cared much for + literature and little for orthodoxy, and from their palaces he could bid + defiance to the Inquisition. + </p> + <p> + While Valla thus initiated biblical criticism south of the Alps, a much + greater man began a more fruitful work in northern Europe. Erasmus, with + his edition of the New Testament, stands at the source of that great + stream of modern research and thought which is doing so much to undermine + and dissolve away the vast fabric of patristic and scholastic + interpretation. + </p> + <p> + Yet his efforts to purify the scriptural text seemed at first to encounter + insurmountable difficulties, and one of these may stimulate reflection. He + had found, what some others had found before him, that the famous verse in + the fifth chapter of the First Epistle General of St. John, regarding the + "three witnesses," was an interpolation. Careful research through all the + really important early manuscripts showed that it appeared in none of + them. Even after the Bible had been corrected, in the eleventh and twelfth + centuries, by Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, and by Nicholas, + cardinal and librarian of the Roman Church, "in accordance with the + orthodox faith," the passage was still wanting in the more authoritative + Latin manuscripts. There was not the slightest tenable ground for + believing in the authenticity of the text; on the contrary, it has been + demonstrated that, after a universal silence of the orthodox fathers of + the Church, of the ancient versions of the Scriptures, and of all really + important manuscripts, the verse first appeared in a Confession of Faith + drawn up by an obscure zealot toward the end of the fifth century. In a + very mild exercise, then, of critical judgment, Erasmus omitted this text + from the first two editions of his Greek Testament as evidently spurious. + A storm arose at once. In England, Lee, afterward Archbishop of York; in + Spain, Stunica, one of the editors of the Complutensian Polyglot; and in + France, Bude, Syndic of the Sorbonne, together with a vast army of monks + in England and on the Continent, attacked him ferociously. He was + condemned by the University of Paris, and various propositions of his were + declared to be heretical and impious. Fortunately, the worst persecutors + could not reach him; otherwise they might have treated him as they treated + his disciple, Berquin, whom in 1529 they burned at Paris. + </p> + <p> + The fate of this spurious text throws light into the workings of human + nature in its relations to sacred literature. Although Luther omitted it + from his translation of the New Testament, and kept it out of every copy + published during his lifetime, and although at a later period the most + eminent Christian scholars showed that it had no right to a place in the + Bible, it was, after Luther's death, replaced in the German translation, + and has been incorporated into all important editions of it, save one, + since the beginning of the seventeenth century. So essential was it found + in maintaining the dominant theology that, despite the fact that Sir Isaac + Newton, Richard Porson, the nineteenth-century revisers, and all other + eminent authorities have rejected it, the Anglican Church still retains it + in its Lectionary, and the Scotch Church continues to use it in the + Westminster Catechism, as a main support of the doctrine of the Trinity. + </p> + <p> + Nor were other new truths presented by Erasmus better received. His + statement that "some of the epistles ascribed to St. Paul are certainly + not his," which is to-day universally acknowledged as a truism, also + aroused a storm. For generations, then, his work seemed vain. + </p> + <p> + On the coming in of the Reformation the great structure of belief in the + literal and historical correctness of every statement in the Scriptures, + in the profound allegorical meanings of the simplest texts, and even in + the divine origin of the vowel punctuation, towered more loftily and grew + more rapidly than ever before. The Reformers, having cast off the + authority of the Pope and of the universal Church, fell back all the more + upon the infallibility of the sacred books. The attitude of Luther toward + this great subject was characteristic. As a rule, he adhered tenaciously + to the literal interpretation of the Scriptures; his argument against + Copernicus is a fair example of his reasoning in this respect; but, with + the strong good sense which characterized him, he from time to time broke + away from the received belief. Thus, he took the liberty of understanding + certain passages in the Old Testament in a different sense from that given + them by the New Testament, and declared St. Paul's allegorical use of the + story of Sarah and Hagar "too unsound to stand the test." He also + emphatically denied that the Epistle to the Hebrews was written by St. + Paul, and he did this in the exercise of a critical judgment upon internal + evidence. His utterance as to the Epistle of St. James became famous. He + announced to the Church: "I do not esteem this an apostolic, epistle; I + will not have it in my Bible among the canonical books," and he summed up + his opinion in his well-known allusion to it as "an epistle of straw." + </p> + <p> + Emboldened by him, the gentle spirit of Melanchthon, while usually taking + the Bible very literally, at times revolted; but this was not due to any + want of loyalty to the old method of interpretation: whenever the wildest + and most absurd system of exegesis seemed necessary to support any part of + the reformed doctrine, Luther and Melanchthon unflinchingly developed it. + Both of them held firmly to the old dictum of Hugo of St. Victor, which, + as we have seen, was virtually that one must first accept the doctrine, + and then find scriptural warrant for it. Very striking examples of this + were afforded in the interpretation by Luther and Melanchthon of certain + alleged marvels of their time, and one out of several of these may be + taken as typical of their methods. + </p> + <p> + In 1523 Luther and Melanchthon jointly published a work under the title + Der Papstesel—interpreting the significance of a strange, ass-like + monster which, according to a popular story, had been found floating in + the Tiber some time before. This book was illustrated by startling + pictures, and both text and pictures were devoted to proving that this + monster was "a sign from God," indicating the doom of the papacy. This + treatise by the two great founders of German Protestantism pointed out + that the ass's head signified the Pope himself; "for," said they, "as well + as an ass's head is suited to a human body, so well is the Pope suited to + be head over the Church." This argument was clinched by a reference to + Exodus. The right hand of the monster, said to be like an elephant's foot, + they made to signify the spiritual rule of the Pope, since "with it he + tramples upon all the weak": this they proved from the book of Daniel and + the Second Epistle to Timothy. The monster's left hand, which was like the + hand of a man, they declared to mean the Pope's secular rule, and they + found passages to support this view in Daniel and St. Luke. The right + foot, which was like the foot of an ox, they declared to typify the + servants of the spiritual power; and proved this by a citation from St. + Matthew. The left foot, like a griffin's claw, they made to typify the + servants of the temporal power of the Pope, and the highly developed + breasts and various other members, cardinals, bishops, priests, and monks, + "whose life is eating, drinking, and unchastity": to prove this they cited + passages from Second Timothy and Philippians. The alleged fish-scales on + the arms, legs, and neck of the monster they made to typify secular + princes and lords; "since," as they said, "in St. Matthew and Job the sea + typifies the world, and fishes men." The old man's head at the base of the + monster's spine they interpreted to mean "the abolition and end of the + papacy," and proved this from Hebrews and Daniel. The dragon which opens + his mouth in the rear and vomits fire, "refers to the terrible, virulent + bulls and books which the Pope and his minions are now vomiting forth into + the world." The two great Reformers then went on to insist that, since + this monster was found at Rome, it could refer to no person but the Pope; + "for," they said, "God always sends his signs in the places where their + meaning applies." Finally, they assured the world that the monster in + general clearly signified that the papacy was then near its end. To this + development of interpretation Luther and Melanchthon especially devoted + themselves; the latter by revising this exposition of the prodigy, and the + former by making additions to a new edition. Such was the success of this + kind of interpretation that Luther, hearing that a monstrous calf had been + found at Freiburg, published a treatise upon it—showing, by + citations from the books of Exodus, Kings, the Psalms, Isaiah, Daniel, and + the Gospel of St. John, that this new monster was the especial work of the + devil, but full of meaning in regard to the questions at issue between the + Reformers and the older Church. + </p> + <p> + The other main branch of the Reformed Church appeared for a time to + establish a better system. Calvin's strong logic seemed at one period + likely to tear his adherents away from the older method; but the evolution + of scholasticism continued, and the influence of the German reformers + prevailed. At every theological centre came an amazing development of + interpretation. + </p> + <p> + Eminent Lutheran divines in the seventeenth century, like Gerhard, + Calovius, Coccerus, and multitudes of others, wrote scores of quartos to + further this system, and the other branch of the Protestant Church + emulated their example. The pregnant dictum of St. Augustine—"Greater + is the authority of Scripture than all human capacity"—was steadily + insisted upon, and, toward the close of the seventeenth century, Voetius, + the renowned professor at Utrecht, declared, "Not a word is contained in + the Holy Scriptures which is not in the strictest sense inspired, the very + punctuation not excepted"; and this declaration was echoed back from + multitudes of pulpits, theological chairs, synods, and councils. + Unfortunately, it was very difficult to find what the "authority of + Scripture" really was. To the greater number of Protestant ecclesiastics + it meant the authority of any meaning in the text which they had the wit + to invent and the power to enforce. + </p> + <p> + To increase this vast confusion, came, in the older branch of the Church, + the idea of the divine inspiration of the Latin translation of the Bible + ascribed to St. Jerome—the Vulgate. It was insisted by leading + Catholic authorities that this was as completely a product of divine + inspiration as was the Hebrew original. Strong men arose to insist even + that, where the Hebrew and the Latin differed, the Hebrew should be + altered to fit Jerome's mistranslation, as the latter, having been made + under the new dispensation, must be better than that made under the old. + Even so great a man as Cardinal Bellarmine exerted himself in vain against + this new tide of unreason.(469) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (469) For Valla, see various sources already named; and for an +especially interesting account, Symond's Renaissance in Italy, the +Revival of Learning, pp. 260-269; and for the opinion of the best +contemporary judge, see Erasmus, Opera, Leyden, 1703, tom. iii, p. 98. +For Erasmus and his opponents, see Life of Erasmus, by Butler, London, +1825, pp. 179-182; but especially, for the general subject, Bishop +Creighton's History of the Papacy during the Reformation. For the attack +by Bude and the Sorbonne and the burning of Berquin, see Drummond, Life +and character of Erasmus, vol. ii, pp. 220-223; also pp. 230-239. As +to the text of the Three Witnesses, see Gibbon, Decline and Fall of +the Roman Empire, chap. xxxvi, notes 116-118; also Dean Milman's note +thereupon. For a full and learned statement of the evidence against +the verse, see Porson's Letters to Travis, London, 1790, in which an +elaborate discussion of all the MSS. is given. See also Jowett in Essays +and Reviews, p. 307. For a very full and impartial history of the long +controversy over this passage, see Charles Butler's Horae Biblicae, +reprinted in Jared Sparks's Theological Essays and Tracts, vol. ii. For +Luther's ideas of interpretation, see his Sammtliche Schriften, Walch +edition, vol. i, p. 1199, vol. ii, p. 1758, vol. viii, p. 2140; for some +of his more free views, vol. xiv, p. 472, vol. vi, p. 121, vol. xi, p. +1448, vol. xii, p. 830; also Tholuck, Doctrine of Inspiration, Boston, +1867, citing the Colloquia, Frankfort, 1571, vol. ii, p. 102; also +the Vorreden zu der deutschen Bibelubersetzung, in Walch's edition, as +above, vol. xiv, especially pp. 94, 98, and 146-150. As to Melanchthon, +see especially his Loci Communes, 1521; and as to the enormous growth +of commentaries in the generations immediately following, see Charles +Beard, Hibbert Lectures for 1883, on the Reformation, especially the +admirable chapter on Protestant Scholasticism; also Archdeacon Farrar, +history of Interpretation. For the Papstesel, etc., see Luther's +Sammtliche Schriften, edit. Walch, vol. xiv, pp. 2403 et seq.; also +Melanchthon's Opera, edit. Bretschneider, vol. xx, pp. 665 et seq. +In the White Library of Cornell University will be found an original +edition of the book, with engravings of the monster. For the Monchkalb, +see Luther's works as above, vol. xix, pp. 2416 et seq. For the spirit +of Calvin in interpretation, see Farrar, ans especially H. P. Smith, D. +D., Inspiration and Inerrancy, chap. iv, and the very brilliant essay +forming chap. iii of the same work, by L. J. Evans, pp. 66 and 67, +note. For the attitude of the older Church toward the Vulgate, see +Pallavicini, Histoire du Concile de Trente, Montrouge, 1844, tome i, pp +19,20; but especially Symonds, The Catholic Reaction, vol. i, pp. 226 et +seq. As to a demand for the revision of the Hebrew Bible to correct its +differences from the Vulgate, see Emanuel Deutsch's Literary Remains, +New York, 1874, p. 9. For the work and spirit of Calovius and other +commentators immediately following the Reformation, see Farrar, as +above; also Beard, Schaff, and Hertzog, Geschichte des alten Testaments +in der christlichen Kirche, pp. 527 et seq. As to extreme views of +Voetius and others, see Tholuck, as above. For the Formula Concensus +Helvetica, which in 1675 affirmed the inspiration of the vowel points, +see Schaff, Creeds. +</pre> + <p> + Nor was a fanatical adhesion to the mere letter of the sacred text + confined to western Europe. About the middle of the seventeenth century, + in the reign of Alexis, father of Peter the Great, Nikon, Patriarch of the + Russian Greek Church, attempted to correct the Slavonic Scriptures and + service-books. They were full of interpolations due to ignorance, + carelessness, or zeal, and in order to remedy this state of the texts + Nikon procured a number of the best Greek and Slavonic manuscripts, set + the leading and most devout scholars he could find at work upon them, and + caused Russian Church councils in 1655 and 1666 to promulgate the books + thus corrected. + </p> + <p> + But the same feelings which have wrought so strongly against our + nineteenth-century revision of the Bible acted even more forcibly against + that revision in the seventeenth century. Straightway great masses of the + people, led by monks and parish priests, rose in revolt. The fact that the + revisers had written in the New Testament the name of Jesus correctly, + instead of following the old wrong orthography, aroused the wildest + fanaticism. The monks of the great convent of Solovetsk, when the new + books were sent them, cried in terror: "Woe, woe! what have you done with + the Son of God?" They then shut their gates, defying patriarch, council, + and Czar, until, after a struggle lasting seven years, their monastery was + besieged and taken by an imperial army. Hence arose the great sect of the + "Old Believers," lasting to this day, and fanatically devoted to the + corrupt readings of the old text.(470) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (470) The present writer, visiting Moscow in the spring of 1894, +was presented by Count Leo Tolstoi to one of the most eminent and +influential members of the sect of "Old Believers," which dates from +the reform of Nikon. Nothing could exceed the fervor with which this +venerable man, standing in the chapel of his superb villa, expatiated on +the horrors of making the sign of the cross with three fingers instead +of two. His argument was that the TWO fingers, as used by the "Old +Believers," typify the divine and human nature of our Lord, and hence +that the use of them is strictly correct; whereas signing with THREE +fingers, representing the blessed Trinity, is "virtually to crucify all +three persons of the Godhead afresh." Not less cogent were his arguments +regarding the immense value of the old text of Scripture as compared +with the new. For the revolt against Nikon and his reforms, see Rambaud, +History of Russia, vol. i, pp. 414-416; also Wallace, Russia, vol. ii, +pp. 307-309; also Leroy-Beaulieu, L'Empire des Tsars, vol. iii, livre +iii. +</pre> + <p> + Strange to say, on the development of Scripture interpretation, largely in + accordance with the old methods, wrought, about the beginning of the + eighteenth century, Sir Isaac Newton. + </p> + <p> + It is hard to believe that from the mind which produced the Principia, and + which broke through the many time-honoured beliefs regarding the dates and + formation of scriptural books, could have come his discussions regarding + the prophecies; still, at various points even in this work, his power + appears. From internal evidence he not only discarded the text of the + Three Witnesses, but he decided that the Pentateuch must have been made up + from several books; that Genesis was not written until the reign of Saul; + that the books of Kings and Chronicles were probably collected by Ezra; + and, in a curious anticipation of modern criticism, that the book of + Psalms and the prophecies of Isaiah and Daniel were each written by + various authors at various dates. But the old belief in prophecy as + prediction was too strong for him, and we find him applying his great + powers to the relation of the details given by the prophets and in the + Apocalypse to the history of mankind since unrolled, and tracing from + every statement in prophetic literature its exact fulfilment even in the + most minute particulars. + </p> + <p> + By the beginning of the eighteenth century the structure of scriptural + interpretation had become enormous. It seemed destined to hide forever the + real character of our sacred literature and to obscure the great light + which Christianity had brought into the world. The Church, Eastern and + Western, Catholic and Protestant, was content to sit in its shadow, and + the great divines of all branches of the Church reared every sort of + fantastic buttress to strengthen or adorn it. It seemed to be founded for + eternity; and yet, at this very time when it appeared the strongest, a + current of thought was rapidly dissolving away its foundations, and + preparing that wreck and ruin of the whole fabric which is now, at the + close of the nineteenth century, going on so rapidly. + </p> + <p> + The account of the movement thus begun is next to be given.(471) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (471) For Newton's boldness in textual criticism, compared with his +credulity as to the literal fulfilment of prophecy, see his Observations +upon the Prophesies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John, in his +works, edited by Horsley, London, 1785, vol. v, pp. 297-491. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0085" id="link2H_4_0085"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II. BEGINNINGS OF SCIENTIFIC INTERPRETATION. + </h2> + <p> + At the base of the vast structure of the older scriptural interpretation + were certain ideas regarding the first five books of the Old Testament. It + was taken for granted that they had been dictated by the Almighty to Moses + about fifteen hundred years before our era; that some parts of them, + indeed, had been written by the corporeal finger of Jehovah, and that all + parts gave not merely his thoughts but his exact phraseology. It was also + held, virtually by the universal Church, that while every narrative or + statement in these books is a precise statement of historical or + scientific fact, yet that the entire text contains vast hidden meanings. + Such was the rule: the exceptions made by a few interpreters here and + there only confirmed it. Even the indifference of St. Jerome to the + doctrine of Mosaic authorship did not prevent its ripening into a dogma. + </p> + <p> + The book of Genesis was universally held to be an account, not only + divinely comprehensive but miraculously exact, of the creation and of the + beginnings of life on the earth; an account to which all discoveries in + every branch of science must, under pains and penalties, be made to + conform. In English-speaking lands this has lasted until our own time: the + most eminent of recent English biologists has told us how in every path of + natural science he has, at some stage in his career, come across a barrier + labelled "No thoroughfare Moses." + </p> + <p> + A favourite subject of theological eloquence was the perfection of the + Pentateuch, and especially of Genesis, not only as a record of the past, + but as a revelation of the future. + </p> + <p> + The culmination of this view in the Protestant Church was the Pansophia + Mosaica of Pfeiffer, a Lutheran general superintendent, or bishop, in + northern Germany, near the beginning of the seventeenth century. He + declared that the text of Genesis "must be received strictly"; that "it + contains all knowledge, human and divine"; that "twenty-eight articles of + the Augsburg Confession are to be found in it"; that "it is an arsenal of + arguments against all sects and sorts of atheists, pagans, Jews, Turks, + Tartars, papists, Calvinists, Socinians, and Baptists"; "the source of all + sciences and arts, including law, medicine, philosophy, and rhetoric"; + "the source and essence of all histories and of all professions, trades, + and works"; "an exhibition of all virtues and vices"; "the origin of all + consolation." + </p> + <p> + This utterance resounded through Germany from pulpit to pulpit, growing in + strength and volume, until a century later it was echoed back by Huet, the + eminent bishop and commentator of France. He cited a hundred authors, + sacred and profane, to prove that Moses wrote the Pentateuch; and not only + this, but that from the Jewish lawgiver came the heathen theology—that + Moses was, in fact, nearly the whole pagan pantheon rolled into one, and + really the being worshipped under such names as Bacchus, Adonis, and + Apollo.(472) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (472) For the passage from Huxley regarding Mosaic barriers to modern +thought, see his Essays, recently published. For Pfeiffer, see Zoeckler, +Theologie und Naturwissenschaft, vol. i, pp. 688, 689. For St. Jerome's +indifference as to the Mosaic authorship, see the first of the excellent +Sketches of the Pentateuch Criticism, by the Rev. S. J. Curtiss, in the +Bibliotheca Sacra for January, 1884. For Huet, see also Curtiss, ibid. +</pre> + <p> + About the middle of the twelfth century came, so far as the world now + knows, the first gainsayer of this general theory. Then it was that Aben + Ezra, the greatest biblical scholar of the Middle Ages, ventured very + discreetly to call attention to certain points in the Pentateuch + incompatible with the belief that the whole of it had been written by + Moses and handed down in its original form. His opinion was based upon the + well-known texts which have turned all really eminent biblical scholars in + the nineteenth century from the old view by showing the Mosaic authorship + of the five books in their present form to be clearly disproved by the + books themselves; and, among these texts, accounts of Moses' own death and + burial, as well as statements based on names, events, and conditions which + only came into being ages after the time of Moses. + </p> + <p> + But Aben Ezra had evidently no aspirations for martyrdom; he fathered the + idea upon a rabbi of a previous generation, and, having veiled his + statement in an enigma, added the caution, "Let him who understands hold + his tongue."(473) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (473) For the texts referred to by Aben Ezra as incompatible with the +Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, see Meyer, Geschichte der Exegese, +vol. i, pp. 85-88; and for a pithy short account, Moore's introduction +to The Genesis of Genesis, by B. W. Bacon, Hartford, 1893, p. 23; also +Curtiss, as above. For a full exhibition of the absolute incompatibility +of these texts with the Mosaic authorship, etc., see The Higher +Criticism of the Pentateuch, by C. A. Briggs, D. D., New York, 1893, +especially chap. iv; also Robertson Smith, art. Bible, in Encycl. Brit. +</pre> + <p> + For about four centuries the learned world followed the prudent rabbi's + advice, and then two noted scholars, one of them a Protestant, the other a + Catholic, revived his idea. The first of these, Carlstadt, insisted that + the authorship of the Pentateuch was unknown and unknowable; the other, + Andreas Maes, expressed his opinion in terms which would not now offend + the most orthodox, that the Pentateuch had been edited by Ezra, and had + received in the process sundry divinely inspired words and phrases to + clear the meaning. Both these innovators were dealt with promptly: + Carlstadt was, for this and other troublesome ideas, suppressed with the + applause of the Protestant Church; and the book of Maes was placed by the + older Church on the Index. + </p> + <p> + But as we now look back over the Revival of Learning, the Age of + Discovery, and the Reformation, we can see clearly that powerful as the + older Church then was, and powerful as the Reformed Church was to be, + there was at work something far more mighty than either or than both; and + this was a great law of nature—the law of evolution through + differentiation. Obedient to this law there now began to arise, both + within the Church and without it, a new body of scholars—not so much + theologians as searchers for truth by scientific methods. Some, like Cusa, + were ecclesiastics; some, like Valla, Erasmus, and the Scaligers, were not + such in any real sense; but whether in holy orders, really, nominally, or + not at all, they were, first of all, literary and scientific + investigators. + </p> + <p> + During the sixteenth century a strong impulse was given to more thorough + research by several very remarkable triumphs of the critical method as + developed by this new class of men, and two of these ought here to receive + attention on account of their influence upon the whole after course of + human thought. + </p> + <p> + For many centuries the Decretals bearing the great name of Isidore had + been cherished as among the most valued muniments of the Church. They + contained what claimed to be a mass of canons, letters of popes, decrees + of councils, and the like, from the days of the apostles down to the + eighth century—all supporting at important points the doctrine, the + discipline, the ceremonial, and various high claims of the Church and its + hierarchy. + </p> + <p> + But in the fifteenth century that sturdy German thinker, Cardinal Nicholas + of Cusa, insisted on examining these documents and on applying to them the + same thorough research and patient thought which led him, even before + Copernicus, to detect the error of the Ptolemaic astronomy. + </p> + <p> + As a result, he avowed his scepticism regarding this pious literature; + other close thinkers followed him in investigating it, and it was soon + found a tissue of absurd anachronisms, with endless clashing and confusion + of events and persons. + </p> + <p> + For a time heroic attempts were made by Church authorities to cover up + these facts. Scholars revealing them were frowned upon, even persecuted, + and their works placed upon the Index; scholars explaining them away—the + "apologists" or "reconcilers" of that day—were rewarded with Church + preferment, one of them securing for a very feeble treatise a cardinal's + hat. But all in vain; these writings were at length acknowledged by all + scholars of note, Catholic and Protestant, to be mainly a mass of devoutly + cunning forgeries. + </p> + <p> + While the eyes of scholars were thus opened as never before to the skill + of early Church zealots in forging documents useful to ecclesiasticism, + another discovery revealed their equal skill in forging documents useful + to theology. + </p> + <p> + For more than a thousand years great stress had been laid by theologians + upon the writings ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite, the Athenian + convert of St. Paul. Claiming to come from one so near the great apostle, + they were prized as a most precious supplement to Holy Writ. A belief was + developed that when St. Paul had returned to earth, after having been + "caught up to the third heaven," he had revealed to Dionysius the things + he had seen. Hence it was that the varied pictures given in these writings + of the heavenly hierarchy and the angelic ministers of the Almighty took + strong hold upon the imagination of the universal Church: their + theological statements sank deeply into the hearts and minds of the + Mystics of the twelfth century and the Platonists of the fifteenth; and + the ten epistles they contained, addressed to St. John, to Titus, to + Polycarp, and others of the earliest period, were considered treasures of + sacred history. An Emperor of the East had sent these writings to an + Emperor of the West as the most precious of imperial gifts. Scotus Erigena + had translated them; St. Thomas Aquinas had expounded them; Dante had + glorified them; Albert the Great had claimed that they were virtually + given by St. Paul and inspired by the Holy Ghost. Their authenticity was + taken for granted by fathers, doctors, popes, councils, and the universal + Church. + </p> + <p> + But now, in the glow of the Renascence, all this treasure was found to be + but dross. Investigators in the old Church and in the new joined in + proving that the great mass of it was spurious. + </p> + <p> + To say nothing of other evidences, it failed to stand the simplest of all + tests, for these writings constantly presupposed institutions and referred + to events of much later date than the time of Dionysius; they were at + length acknowledged by all authorities worthy of the name, Catholic as + well as Protestant, to be simply—like the Isidorian Decretals—pious + frauds. + </p> + <p> + Thus arose an atmosphere of criticism very different from the atmosphere + of literary docility and acquiescence of the "Ages of Faith"; thus it came + that great scholars in all parts of Europe began to realize, as never + before, the part which theological skill and ecclesiastical zeal had taken + in the development of spurious sacred literature; thus was stimulated a + new energy in research into all ancient documents, no matter what their + claims. To strengthen this feeling and to intensify the stimulating + qualities of this new atmosphere came, as we have seen, the researches and + revelations of Valla regarding the forged Letter of Christ to Abgarus, the + fraudulent Donation of Constantine, and the late date of the Apostles' + Creed; and, to give this feeling direction toward the Hebrew and Christian + sacred books, came the example of Erasmus.(474) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (474) For very fair statements regarding the great forged documents of +the Middle Ages, see Addis and Arnold, Catholic Dictionary, articles +Dionysius the Areopagite and False Decretals, and in the latter the +curious acknowledgment that the mass of pseudo-Isidorian Decretals "is +what we now call a forgery." +</pre> + <p> + For the derivation of Dionysius's ideas from St. Paul, and for the idea of + inspiration attributed to him, see Albertus Magnus, Opera Omnia, vol. + xiii, early chapters and chap. vi. For very interesting details on this + general subject, see Dollinger, Das Papstthum, chap. ii; also his Fables + respecting the Popes of the Middle Ages, translated by Plummer and H. B. + Smith, part i, chap. v. Of the exposure of these works, see Farrar, as + above, pp. 254, 255; also Beard, Hibbert Lectures, pp. 4, 354. For the + False Decretals, see Milman, History of Latin Christianity, vol. ii, pp. + 373 et seq. For the great work of the pseudo-Dionysius, see ibid., vol. + iii, p. 352, and vol. vi, pp. 402 et seq., and Canon Westcott's article on + Dionysius the Areopagite in vol. v of the Contemporary Review; also the + chapters on Astronomy in this work. + </p> + <p> + Naturally, then, in this new atmosphere the bolder scholars of Europe soon + began to push more vigorously the researches begun centuries before by + Aben Ezra, and the next efforts of these men were seen about the middle of + the seventeenth century, when Hobbes, in his Leviathan, and La Pevrere, in + his Preadamites, took them up and developed them still further. The result + came speedily. Hobbes, for this and other sins, was put under the ban, + even by the political party which sorely needed him, and was regarded + generally as an outcast; while La Peyrere, for this and other heresies, + was thrown into prison by the Grand Vicar of Mechlin, and kept there until + he fully retracted: his book was refuted by seven theologians within a + year after its appearance, and within a generation thirty-six elaborate + answers to it had appeared: the Parliament of Paris ordered it to be + burned by the hangman. + </p> + <p> + In 1670 came an utterance vastly more important, by a man far greater than + any of these—the Tractatus Thrologico-Politicus of Spinoza. + Reverently but firmly he went much more deeply into the subject. + Suggesting new arguments and recasting the old, he summed up all with + judicial fairness, and showed that Moses could not have been the author of + the Pentateuch in the form then existing; that there had been glosses and + revisions; that the biblical books had grown up as a literature; that, + though great truths are to be found in them, and they are to be regarded + as a divine revelation, the old claims of inerrancy for them can not be + maintained; that in studying them men had been misled by mistaking human + conceptions for divine meanings; that, while prophets have been inspired, + the prophetic faculty has not been the dowry of the Jewish people alone; + that to look for exact knowledge of natural and spiritual phenomena in the + sacred books is an utter mistake; and that the narratives of the Old and + New Testaments, while they surpass those of profane history, differ among + themselves not only in literary merit, but in the value of the doctrines + they inculcate. As to the authorship of the Pentateuch, he arrived at the + conclusion that it was written long after Moses, but that Moses may have + written some books from which it was compiled—as, for example, those + which are mentioned in the Scriptures, the Book of the Wars of God, the + Book of the Covenant, and the like—and that the many repetitions and + contradictions in the various books show a lack of careful editing as well + as a variety of original sources. Spinoza then went on to throw light into + some other books of the Old and New Testaments, and added two general + statements which have proved exceedingly serviceable, for they contain the + germs of all modern broad churchmanship; and the first of them gave the + formula which was destined in our own time to save to the Anglican Church + a large number of her noblest sons: this was, that "sacred Scripture + CONTAINS the Word of God, and in so far as it contains it is + incorruptible"; the second was, that "error in speculative doctrine is not + impious." + </p> + <p> + Though published in various editions, the book seemed to produce little + effect upon the world at that time; but its result to Spinoza himself was + none the less serious. Though so deeply religious that Novalis spoke of + him as "a God-intoxicated man," and Schleiermacher called him a "saint," + he had been, for the earlier expression of some of the opinions it + contained, abhorred as a heretic both by Jews and Christians: from the + synagogue he was cut off by a public curse, and by the Church he was now + regarded as in some sort a forerunner of Antichrist. For all this, he + showed no resentment, but devoted himself quietly to his studies, and to + the simple manual labour by which he supported himself; declined all + proffered honours, among them a professorship at Heidelberg; found + pleasure only in the society of a few friends as gentle and affectionate + as himself; and died contentedly, without seeing any widespread effect of + his doctrine other than the prevailing abhorrence of himself. + </p> + <p> + Perhaps in all the seventeenth century there was no man whom Jesus of + Nazareth would have more deeply loved, and no life which he would have + more warmly approved; yet down to a very recent period this hatred for + Spinoza has continued. When, about 1880, it was proposed to erect a + monument to him at Amsterdam, discourses were given in churches and + synagogues prophesying the wrath of Heaven upon the city for such a + profanation; and when the monument was finished, the police were obliged + to exert themselves to prevent injury to the statue and to the eminent + scholars who unveiled it. + </p> + <p> + But the ideas of Spinoza at last secured recognition. They had sunk deeply + into the hearts and minds of various leaders of thought, and, most + important of all, into the heart and mind of Lessing; he brought them to + bear in his treatise on the Education of the World, as well as in his + drama, Nathan the Wise, and both these works have spoken with power to + every generation since. + </p> + <p> + In France, also, came the same healthful evolution of thought. For + generations scholars had known that multitudes of errors had crept into + the sacred text. Robert Stephens had found over two thousand variations in + the oldest manuscripts of the Old Testament, and in 1633 Jean Morin, a + priest of the Oratory, pointed out clearly many of the most glaring of + these. Seventeen years later, in spite of the most earnest Protestant + efforts to suppress his work, Cappellus gave forth his Critica Sacra, + demonstrating not only that the vowel pointing of Scripture was not + divinely inspired, but that the Hebrew text itself, from which the modern + translations were made, is full of errors due to the carelessness, + ignorance, and doctrinal zeal of early scribes, and that there had clearly + been no miraculous preservation of the "original autographs" of the sacred + books. + </p> + <p> + While orthodox France was under the uneasiness and alarm thus caused, + appeared a Critical History of the Old Testament by Richard Simon, a + priest of the Oratory. He was a thoroughly religious man and an acute + scholar, whose whole purpose was to develop truths which he believed + healthful to the Church and to mankind. But he denied that Moses was the + author of the Pentateuch, and exhibited the internal evidence, now so well + known, that the books were composed much later by various persons, and + edited later still. He also showed that other parts of the Old Testament + had been compiled from older sources, and attacked the time-honoured + theory that Hebrew was the primitive language of mankind. The whole + character of his book was such that in these days it would pass, on the + whole, as conservative and orthodox; it had been approved by the censor in + 1678, and printed, when the table of contents and a page of the preface + were shown to Bossuet. The great bishop and theologian was instantly + aroused; he pronounced the work "a mass of impieties and a bulwark of + irreligion"; his biographer tells us that, although it was Holy Thursday, + the bishop, in spite of the solemnity of the day, hastened at once to the + Chancellor Le Tellier, and secured an order to stop the publication of the + book and to burn the whole edition of it. Fortunately, a few copies were + rescued, and a few years later the work found a new publisher in Holland; + yet not until there had been attached to it, evidently by some Protestant + divine of authority, an essay warning the reader against its dangerous + doctrines. Two years later a translation was published in England. + </p> + <p> + This first work of Simon was followed by others, in which he sought, in + the interest of scriptural truth, to throw a new and purer light upon our + sacred literature; but Bossuet proved implacable. Although unable to + suppress all of Simon's works, he was able to drive him from the Oratory, + and to bring him into disrepute among the very men who ought to have been + proud of him as Frenchmen and thankful to him as Christians. + </p> + <p> + But other scholars of eminence were now working in this field, and chief + among them Le Clerc. Virtually driven out of Geneva, he took refuge at + Amsterdam, and there published a series of works upon the Hebrew language, + the interpretation of Scripture, and the like. In these he combated the + prevalent idea that Hebrew was the primitive tongue, expressed the opinion + that in the plural form of the word used in Genesis for God, "Elohim," + there is a trace of Chaldean polytheism, and, in his discussion on the + serpent who tempted Eve, curiously anticipated modern geological and + zoological ideas by quietly confessing his inability to see how depriving + the serpent of feet and compelling him to go on his belly could be + punishment—since all this was natural to the animal. He also + ventured quasi-scientific explanations of the confusion of tongues at + Babel, the destruction of Sodom, the conversion of Lot's wife into a + pillar of salt, and the dividing of the Red Sea. As to the Pentateuch in + general, he completely rejected the idea that it was written by Moses. But + his most permanent gift to the thinking world was his answer to those who + insisted upon the reference by Christ and his apostles to Moses as the + author of the Pentateuch. The answer became a formula which has proved + effective from his day to ours: "Our Lord and his apostles did not come + into this world to teach criticism to the Jews, and hence spoke according + to the common opinion." + </p> + <p> + Against all these scholars came a theological storm, but it raged most + pitilessly against Le Clerc. Such renowned theologians as Carpzov in + Germany, Witsius in Holland, and Huet in France berated him unmercifully + and overwhelmed him with assertions which still fill us with wonder. That + of Huet, attributing the origin of pagan as well as Christian theology to + Moses, we have already seen; but Carpzov showed that Protestantism could + not be outdone by Catholicism when he declared, in the face of all modern + knowledge, that not only the matter but the exact form and words of the + Bible had been divinely transmitted to the modern world free from all + error. + </p> + <p> + At this Le Clerc stood aghast, and finally stammered out a sort of half + recantation.(475) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (475) For Carlstadt, and Luther's dealings with him on various accounts, +see Meyer, Geschichte der exegese, vol. ii, pp. 373, 397. As to the +value of Maes's work in general, see Meyer, vol. ii, p. 125; and as +to the sort of work in question, ibid., vol. iii, p. 425, note. For +Carlstadt, see also Farrar, History of Interpretation, and Moore's +introduction, as above. For Hobbes's view that the Pentateuch was +written long after Moses's day, see the Leviathan, vol. iii, p. 33. For +La Peyrere's view, see especially his Prae-Adamitae, lib. iv, chap. ii, +also lib. ii, passim; also Lecky, Rationalism in Europe, vol. i, p. 294; +also interesting points in Bayle's Dictionary. For Spinoza's view, +see the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, chaps. ii and iii, and for +the persecution, see the various biographies. Details regarding the +demonstration against the unveiling of his statue were given to the +present writer at the time by Berthold Auerbach, who took part in the +ceremony. For Morinus and Cappellus, see Farrar, as above, p. 387 +and note. For Richard Simon, see his Histoire Critique de l'Ancien +Testament, liv. i, chaps. ii, iii, iv, v, and xiii. For his denial +of the prevailing theory regarding Hebrew, see liv. i, chap. iv. For +Morinus (Morin) and his work, see the Biog. Univ. and Nouvelle Biog. +Generale; also Curtiss. For Bousset's opposition to Simon, see the +Histoire de Bousser in the Oeuvres de Bousset, Paris, 1846, tome xii, +pp. 330, 331; also t. x, p. 378; also sundry attacks in various volumes. +It is interesting to note that among the chief instigators of the +persecution were the Port-Royalists, upon whose persecution afterward by +the Jesuits so much sympathy has been lavished by the Protestant world. +For Le Clerc, see especially his Pentateuchus, Prolegom, dissertat. +i; also Com. in Genes., cap. vi-viii. For a translation of selected +passages on the points noted, see Twelve Dissertations out of Monsieur +LeClerc's Genesis, done out of Latin by Mr. Brown, London, 1696; also Le +Clerc's Sentiments de Quelques Theologiens de Hollande, passim; also his +work on Inspiration, English translation, Boston, 1820, pp. 47-50, +also 57-67. For Witsius and Carpzov, see Curtiss, as above. For some +subordinate points in the earlier growth of the opinion at present +dominant, see Briggs, The Higher Criticism of the Hexateuch, New York, +1893, chap. iv. +</pre> + <p> + During the eighteenth century constant additions were made to the enormous + structure of orthodox scriptural interpretation, some of them gaining the + applause of the Christian world then, though nearly all are utterly + discredited now. But in 1753 appeared two contributions of permanent + influence, though differing vastly in value. In the comparative estimate + of these two works the world has seen a remarkable reversal of public + opinion. + </p> + <p> + The first of these was Bishop Lowth's Prelections upon the Sacred Poetry + of the Hebrews. In this was well brought out that characteristic of Hebrew + poetry to which it owes so much of its peculiar charm—its + parallelism. + </p> + <p> + The second of these books was Astruc's Conjectures on the Original Memoirs + which Moses used in composing the Book of Genesis. In this was for the + first time clearly revealed the fact that, amid various fragments of old + writings, at least two main narratives enter into the composition of + Genesis; that in the first of these is generally used as an appellation of + the Almighty the word "Elohim," and in the second the word "Yahveh" + (Jehovah); that each narrative has characteristics of its own, in thought + and expression, which distinguish it from the other; that, by separating + these, two clear and distinct narratives may be obtained, each consistent + with itself, and that thus, and thus alone, can be explained the + repetitions, discrepancies, and contradictions in Genesis which so long + baffled the ingenuity of commentators, especially the two accounts of the + creation, so utterly inconsistent with each other. + </p> + <p> + Interesting as was Lowth's book, this work by Astruc was, as the thinking + world now acknowledges, infinitely more important; it was, indeed, the + most valuable single contribution ever made to biblical study. But such + was not the judgment of the world THEN. While Lowth's book was covered + with honour and its author promoted from the bishopric of St. David's to + that of London, and even offered the primacy, Astruc and his book were + covered with reproach. Though, as an orthodox Catholic, he had mainly + desired to reassert the authorship of Moses against the argument of + Spinoza, he received no thanks on that account. Theologians of all creeds + sneered at him as a doctor of medicine who had blundered beyond his + province; his fellow-Catholics in France bitterly denounced him as a + heretic; and in Germany the great Protestant theologian, Michaelis, who + had edited and exalted Lowth's work, poured contempt over Astruc as an + ignoramus. + </p> + <p> + The case of Astruc is one of the many which show the wonderful power of + the older theological reasoning to close the strongest minds against the + clearest truths. The fact which he discovered is now as definitely + established as any in the whole range of literature or science. It has + become as clear as the day, and yet for two thousand years the minds of + professional theologians, Jewish and Christian, were unable to detect it. + Not until this eminent physician applied to the subject a mind trained in + making scientific distinctions was it given to the world. + </p> + <p> + It was, of course, not possible even for so eminent a scholar as Michaelis + to pooh-pooh down a discovery so pregnant; and, curiously enough, it was + one of Michaelis's own scholars, Eichhorn, who did the main work in + bringing the new truth to bear upon the world. He, with others, developed + out of it the theory that Genesis, and indeed the Pentateuch, is made up + entirely of fragments of old writings, mainly disjointed. But they did far + more than this: they impressed upon the thinking part of Christendom the + fact that the Bible is not a BOOK, but a LITERATURE; that the style is not + supernatural and unique, but simply the Oriental style of the lands and + times in which its various parts were written; and that these must be + studied in the light of the modes of thought and statement and the + literary habits generally of Oriental peoples. From Eichhorn's time the + process which, by historical, philological, and textual research, brings + out the truth regarding this literature has been known as "the higher + criticism." + </p> + <p> + He was a deeply religious man, and the mainspring of his efforts was the + desire to bring back to the Church the educated classes, who had been + repelled by the stiff Lutheran orthodoxy; but this only increased + hostility to him. Opposition met him in Germany at every turn; and in + England, Lloyd, Regius Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge, who sought + patronage for a translation of Eichhorn's work, was met generally with + contempt and frequently with insult. + </p> + <p> + Throughout Catholic Germany it was even worse. In 1774 Isenbiehl, a priest + at Mayence who had distinguished himself as a Greek and Hebrew scholar, + happened to question the usual interpretation of the passage in Isaiah + which refers to the virgin-born Immanuel, and showed then—what every + competent critic knows now—that it had reference to events looked + for in older Jewish history. The censorship and faculty of theology + attacked him at once and brought him before the elector. Luckily, this + potentate was one of the old easy-going prince-bishops, and contented + himself with telling the priest that, though his contention was perhaps + true, he "must remain in the old paths, and avoid everything likely to + make trouble." + </p> + <p> + But at the elector's death, soon afterward, the theologians renewed the + attack, threw Isenbiehl out of his professorship and degraded him. One + insult deserves mention for its ingenuity. It was declared that he—the + successful and brilliant professor—showed by the obnoxious + interpretation that he had not yet rightly learned the Scriptures; he was + therefore sent back to the benches of the theological school, and made to + take his seat among the ingenuous youth who were conning the rudiments of + theology. At this he made a new statement, so carefully guarded that it + disarmed many of his enemies, and his high scholarship soon won for him a + new professorship of Greek—the condition being that he should cease + writing upon Scripture. But a crafty bookseller having republished his + former book, and having protected himself by keeping the place and date of + publication secret, a new storm fell upon the author; he was again removed + from his professorship and thrown into prison; his book was forbidden, and + all copies of it in that part of Germany were confiscated. In 1778, having + escaped from prison, he sought refuge with another of the minor rulers who + in blissful unconsciousness were doing their worst while awaiting the + French Revolution, but was at once delivered up to the Mayence authorities + and again thrown into prison. + </p> + <p> + The Pope, Pius VI, now intervened with a brief on Isenbiehl's book, + declaring it "horrible, false, perverse, destructive, tainted with + heresy," and excommunicating all who should read it. At this, Isenbiehl, + declaring that he had written it in the hope of doing a service to the + Church, recanted, and vegetated in obscurity until his death in 1818. + </p> + <p> + But, despite theological faculties, prince-bishops, and even popes, the + new current of thought increased in strength and volume, and into it at + the end of the eighteenth century came important contributions from two + sources widely separated and most dissimilar. + </p> + <p> + The first of these, which gave a stimulus not yet exhausted, was the work + of Herder. By a remarkable intuition he had anticipated some of those + ideas of an evolutionary process in nature and in literature which first + gained full recognition nearly three quarters of a century after him; but + his greatest service in the field of biblical study was his work, at once + profound and brilliant, The Spirit of Hebrew Poetry. In this field he + eclipsed Bishop Lowth. Among other things of importance, he showed that + the Psalms were by different authors and of different periods—the + bloom of a great poetic literature. + </p> + <p> + Until his time no one had so clearly done justice to their sublimity and + beauty; but most striking of all was his discussion of Solomon's Song. For + over twenty centuries it had been customary to attribute to it mystical + meanings. If here and there some man saw the truth, he was careful, like + Aben Ezra, to speak with bated breath. + </p> + <p> + The penalty for any more honest interpretation was seen, among + Protestants, when Calvin and Beza persecuted Castellio, covered him with + obloquy, and finally drove him to starvation and death, for throwing light + upon the real character of the Song of Songs; and among Catholics it was + seen when Philip II allowed the pious and gifted Luis de Leon, for a + similar offence, to be thrown into a dungeon of the Inquisition and kept + there for five years, until his health was utterly shattered and his + spirit so broken that he consented to publish a new commentary on the + song, "as theological and obscure as the most orthodox could desire." + </p> + <p> + Here, too, we have an example of the efficiency of the older biblical + theology in fettering the stronger minds and in stupefying the weaker. + Just as the book of Genesis had to wait over two thousand years for a + physician to reveal the simplest fact regarding its structure, so the Song + of Songs had to wait even longer for a poet to reveal not only its beauty + but its character. Commentators innumerable had interpreted it; St. + Bernard had preached over eighty sermons on its first two chapters; + Palestrina had set its most erotic parts to sacred music; Jews and + Gentiles, Catholics and Protestants, from Origen to Aben Ezra and from + Luther to Bossuet, had uncovered its deep meanings and had demonstrated it + to be anything and everything save that which it really is. Among scores + of these strange imaginations it was declared to represent the love of + Jehovah for Israel; the love of Christ for the Church; the praises of the + Blessed Virgin; the union of the soul with the body; sacred history from + the Exodus to the Messiah; Church history from the Crucifixion to the + Reformation; and some of the more acute Protestant divines found in it + references even to the religious wars in Germany and to the Peace of + Passau. In these days it seems hard to imagine how really competent + reasoners could thus argue without laughing in each other's faces, after + the manner of Cicero's augurs. Herder showed Solomon's Song to be what the + whole thinking world now knows it to be—simply an Oriental + love-poem. + </p> + <p> + But his frankness brought him into trouble: he was bitterly assailed. + Neither his noble character nor his genius availed him. Obliged to flee + from one pastorate to another, he at last found a happy refuge at Weimar + in the society of Goethe, Wieland, and Jean Paul, and thence he exercised + a powerful influence in removing noxious and parasitic growths from + religious thought. + </p> + <p> + It would hardly be possible to imagine a man more different from Herder + than was the other of the two who most influenced biblical interpretation + at the end of the eighteenth century. This was Alexander Geddes—a + Roman Catholic priest and a Scotchman. Having at an early period attracted + much attention by his scholarship, and having received the very rare + distinction, for a Catholic, of a doctorate from the University of + Aberdeen, he began publishing in 1792 a new translation of the Old + Testament, and followed this in 1800 with a volume of critical remarks. In + these he supported mainly three views: first, that the Pentateuch in its + present form could not have been written by Moses; secondly, that it was + the work of various hands; and, thirdly, that it could not have been + written before the time of David. Although there was a fringe of doubtful + theories about them, these main conclusions, supported as they were by + deep research and cogent reasoning, are now recognised as of great value. + But such was not the orthodox opinion then. Though a man of sincere piety, + who throughout his entire life remained firm in the faith of his fathers, + he and his work were at once condemned: he was suspended by the Catholic + authorities as a misbeliever, denounced by Protestants as an infidel, and + taunted by both as "a would-be corrector of the Holy Ghost." Of course, by + this taunt was meant nothing more than that he dissented from sundry ideas + inherited from less enlightened times by the men who just then happened to + wield ecclesiastical power. + </p> + <p> + But not all the opposition to him could check the evolution of his + thought. A line of great men followed in these paths opened by Astruc and + Eichhorn, and broadened by Herder and Geddes. Of these was De Wette, whose + various works, especially his Introduction to the Old Testament, gave a + new impulse early in the nineteenth century to fruitful thought throughout + Christendom. In these writings, while showing how largely myths and + legends had entered into the Hebrew sacred books, he threw especial light + into the books Deuteronomy and Chronicles. The former he showed to be, in + the main, a late priestly summary of law, and the latter a very late + priestly recast of early history. He had, indeed, to pay a penalty for + thus aiding the world in its march toward more truth, for he was driven + out of Germany, and obliged to take refuge in a Swiss professorship; while + Theodore Parker, who published an English translation of his work, was, + for this and similar sins, virtually rejected by what claimed to be the + most liberal of all Christian bodies in the United States. + </p> + <p> + But contributions to the new thought continued from quarters whence least + was expected. Gesenius, by his Hebrew Grammar, and Ewald, by his + historical studies, greatly advanced it. + </p> + <p> + To them and to all like them during the middle years of the nineteenth + century was sturdily opposed the colossus of orthodoxy—Hengstenberg. + In him was combined the haughtiness of a Prussian drill-sergeant, the zeal + of a Spanish inquisitor, and the flippant brutality of a French orthodox + journalist. Behind him stood the gifted but erratic Frederick William IV—a + man admirably fitted for a professorship of aesthetics, but whom an + inscrutable fate had made King of Prussia. Both these rulers in the German + Israel arrayed all possible opposition against the great scholars + labouring in the new paths; but this opposition was vain: the succession + of acute and honest scholars continued: Vatke, Bleek, Reuss, Graf, Kayser, + Hupfeld, Delitzsch, Kuenen, and others wrought on in Germany and Holland, + steadily developing the new truth. + </p> + <p> + Especially to be mentioned among these is Hupfeld, who published in 1853 + his treatise on The Sources of Genesis. Accepting the Conjectures which + Astruc had published just a hundred years before, he established what has + ever since been recognised by the leading biblical commentators as the + true basis of work upon the Pentateuch—the fact that THREE true + documents are combined in Genesis, each with its own characteristics. He, + too, had to pay a price for letting more light upon the world. A + determined attempt was made to punish him. Though deeply religious in his + nature and aspirations, he was denounced in 1865 to the Prussian + Government as guilty of irreverence; but, to the credit of his noble and + true colleagues who trod in the more orthodox paths—men like Tholuck + and Julius Muller—the theological faculty of the University of Halle + protested against this persecuting effort, and it was brought to naught. + </p> + <p> + The demonstrations of Hupfeld gave new life to biblical scholarship in all + lands. More and more clear became the evidence that throughout the + Pentateuch, and indeed in other parts of our sacred books, there had been + a fusion of various ideas, a confounding of various epochs, and a + compilation of various documents. Thus was opened a new field of thought + and work: in sifting out this literature; in rearranging it; and in + bringing it into proper connection with the history of the Jewish race and + of humanity. + </p> + <p> + Astruc and Hupfeld having thus found a key to the true character of the + "Mosaic" Scriptures, a second key was found which opened the way to the + secret of order in all this chaos. For many generations one thing had + especially puzzled commentators and given rise to masses of futile + "reconciliation": this was the patent fact that such men as Samuel, David, + Elijah, Isaiah, and indeed the whole Jewish people down to the Exile, + showed in all their utterances and actions that they were utterly ignorant + of that vast system of ceremonial law which, according to the accounts + attributed to Moses and other parts of our sacred books, was in full force + during their time and during nearly a thousand years before the Exile. It + was held "always, everywhere, and by all," that in the Old Testament the + chronological order of revelation was: first, the law; secondly, the + Psalms; thirdly, the prophets. This belief continued unchallenged during + more than two thousand years, and until after the middle of the nineteenth + century. + </p> + <p> + Yet, as far back as 1835, Vatke at Berlin had, in his Religion of the Old + Testament, expressed his conviction that this belief was unfounded. + Reasoning that Jewish thought must have been subject to the laws of + development which govern other systems, he arrived at the conclusion that + the legislation ascribed to Moses, and especially the elaborate + paraphernalia and composite ceremonies of the ritual, could not have come + into being at a period so rude as that depicted in the "Mosaic" accounts. + </p> + <p> + Although Vatke wrapped this statement in a mist of Hegelian metaphysics, a + sufficient number of watchmen on the walls of the Prussian Zion saw its + meaning, and an alarm was given. The chroniclers tell us that "fear of + failing in the examinations, through knowing too much, kept students away + from Vatke's lectures." Naturally, while Hengstenberg and Frederick + William IV were commanding the forces of orthodoxy, Vatke thought it wise + to be silent. + </p> + <p> + Still, the new idea was in the air; indeed, it had been divined about a + year earlier, on the other side of the Rhine, by a scholar well known as + acute and thoughtful—Reuss, of Strasburg. Unfortunately, he too was + overawed, and he refrained from publishing his thought during more than + forty years. But his ideas were caught by some of his most gifted + scholars; and, of these, Graf and Kayser developed them and had the + courage to publish them. + </p> + <p> + At the same period this new master key was found and applied by a greater + man than any of these—by Kuenen, of Holland; and thus it was that + three eminent scholars, working in different parts of Europe and on + different lines, in spite of all obstacles, joined in enforcing upon the + thinking world the conviction that the complete Levitical law had been + established not at the beginning, but at the end, of the Jewish nation—mainly, + indeed, after the Jewish nation as an independent political body had + ceased to exist; that this code had not been revealed in the childhood of + Israel, but that it had come into being in a perfectly natural way during + Israel's final decay—during the period when heroes and prophets had + been succeeded by priests. Thus was the historical and psychological + evolution of Jewish institutions brought into harmony with the natural + development of human thought; elaborate ceremonial institutions being + shown to have come after the ruder beginnings of religious development + instead of before them. Thus came a new impulse to research, and the + fruitage was abundant; the older theological interpretation, with its + insoluble puzzles, yielded on all sides. + </p> + <p> + The lead in the new epoch thus opened was taken by Kuenen. Starting with + strong prepossessions in favour of the older thought, and even with + violent utterances against some of the supporters of the new view, he was + borne on by his love of truth, until his great work, The Religion of + Israel, published in 1869, attracted the attention of thinking scholars + throughout the world by its arguments in favour of the upward movement. + From him now came a third master key to the mystery; for he showed that + the true opening point for research into the history and literature of + Israel is to be found in the utterances of the great prophets of the + eighth century before our era. Starting from these, he opened new paths + into the periods preceding and following them. Recognising the fact that + the religion of Israel was, like other great world religions, a + development of higher ideas out of lower, he led men to bring deeper + thinking and wider research into the great problem. With ample learning + and irresistible logic he proved that Old Testament history is largely + mingled with myth and legend; that not only were the laws attributed to + Moses in the main a far later development, but that much of their + historical setting was an afterthought; also that Old Testament prophecy + was never supernaturally predictive, and least of all predictive of events + recorded in the New Testament. Thus it was that his genius gave to the + thinking world a new point of view, and a masterly exhibition of the true + method of study. Justly has one of the most eminent divines of the + contemporary Anglican Church indorsed the statement of another eminent + scholar, that "Kuenen stood upon his watch-tower, as it were the + conscience of Old Testament science"; that his work is characterized "not + merely by fine scholarship, critical insight, historical sense, and a + religious nature, but also by an incorruptible conscientiousness, and a + majestic devotion to the quest of truth." + </p> + <p> + Thus was established the science of biblical criticism. And now the + question was, whether the Church of northern Germany would accept this + great gift—the fruit of centuries of devoted toil and self-sacrifice—and + take the lead of Christendom in and by it. + </p> + <p> + The great curse of Theology and Ecclesiasticism has always been their + tendency to sacrifice large interests to small—Charity to Creed, + Unity to Uniformity, Fact to Tradition, Ethics to Dogma. And now there + were symptoms throughout the governing bodies of the Reformed churches + indicating a determination to sacrifice leadership in this new thought to + ease in orthodoxy. Every revelation of new knowledge encountered outcry, + opposition, and repression; and, what was worse, the ill-judged + declarations of some unwise workers in the critical field were seized upon + and used to discredit all fruitful research. Fortunately, a man now + appeared who both met all this opposition successfully, and put aside all + the half truths or specious untruths urged by minor critics whose zeal + outran their discretion. This was a great constructive scholar—not a + destroyer, but a builder—Wellhausen. Reverently, but honestly and + courageously, with clearness, fulness, and convicting force, he summed up + the conquests of scientific criticism as bearing on Hebrew history and + literature. These conquests had reduced the vast structures which + theologians had during ages been erecting over the sacred text to + shapeless ruin and rubbish: this rubbish he removed, and brought out from + beneath it the reality. He showed Jewish history as an evolution obedient + to laws at work in all ages, and Jewish literature as a growth out of + individual, tribal, and national life. Thus was our sacred history and + literature given a beauty and high use which had long been foreign to + them. Thereby was a vast service rendered immediately to Germany, and + eventually to all mankind; and this service was greatest of all in the + domain of religion.(476) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (476) For Lowth, see the Rev. T. K. Cheyne, D. D., Professor of the +Interpretation of the Holy Scripture in the University of Oxford, +Founders of the Old Testament Criticism, London, 1893, pp. 3, 4. +For Astruc's very high character as a medical authority, see the +Dictionnaire des Sciences Medicales, Paris, 1820; it is significant that +at first he concealed his authorship of the Conjectures. For a brief +statement, see Cheyne; also Moore's introduction to Bacon's Genesis of +Genesis; but for a statement remarkably full and interesting, and based +on knowledge at first hand of Astruc's very rare book, see Curtiss, as +above. For Michaelis and Eichorn, see Meyer, Geschichte der Exegese; +also Cheyne and Moore. For Isenbiehl, see Reusch, in Allg. deutsche +Biographie. The texts cited against him were Isaiah vii, 14, and Matt. +i, 22, 23. For Herder, see various historians of literature and writers +in exegesis, and especially Pfleiderer, Development of Theology in +Germany, chap. ii. For his influence, as well as that of Lessing, see +Beard's Hibbert Lectures, chap. x. For a brief comparison of Lowth's +work with that of Herder, see Farrar, History of Interpretation, p. 377. +For examples of interpretations of the Song of Songs, see Farrar, as +above, p. 33. For Castellio (Chatillon), his anticipation of Herder's +view of Solomon's Song, and his persecution by Calvin and Beza, which +drove him to starvation and death, see Lecky, Rationalism, etc., +vol. ii, pp. 46-48; also Bayle's Dictionary, article Castalio; also +Montaigne's Essais, liv,. i, chap. xxxiv; and especially the new life +of him by Buisson. For the persecution of Luis de Leon for a similar +offence, see Ticknor, History of Spanish Literature, vol. ii, pp. 41, +42, and note. For a remarkably frank acceptance of the consequences +flowing from Herder's view of it, see Sanday, Inspiration, pp. 211, 405. +For Geddes, see Cheyne, as above. For Theodore Parker, see his various +biographies, passim. For Reuss, Graf, and Kuenen, see Cheyne, as above; +and for the citations referred to, see the Rev. Dr. Driver, Regius +Professor of Hebrew at Oxford, in The Academy, October 27, 1894; also a +note to Wellhausen's article Pentateuch in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. +For a generous yet weighty tribute to Kuenen's method, see Pfleiderer, +as above, book iii, chap. ii. For the view of leading Christian critics +on the book of Chronicles, see especially Driver, Introduction to the +Literature of the Old Testament, pp. 495 et seq.; also Wellhausen, as +above; also Hooykaas, Oort, and Kuenen, Bible for Learners. For many of +the foregoing, see also the writings of Prof. W. Robertson Smith; also +Beard's Hibbert Lectures, chap. x. For Hupfield and his discovery, see +Cheyne, Founders, etc., as above, chap. vii; also Moore's Introduction. +For a justly indignant judgment of Hengstenberg and his school, see +Canon Farrar, as above, p. 417, note; and for a few words throwing a +bright light into his character and career, see C. A. Briggs, D. D., +Authority of Holy Scripture, p. 93. For Wellhausen, see Pfleiderer, as +above, book iii, chap. ii. For an excellent popular statement of the +general results of German criticism, see J. T. Sunderland, The Bible, +Its Origin, Growth, and Character, New York and London, 1893. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0086" id="link2H_4_0086"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III. THE CONTINUED GROWTH OF SCIENTIFIC INTERPRETATION. + </h2> + <p> + The science of biblical criticism was, as we have seen, first developed + mainly in Germany and Holland. Many considerations there, as elsewhere, + combined to deter men from opening new paths to truth: not even in those + countries were these the paths to preferment; but there, at least, the + sturdy Teutonic love of truth for truth's sake, strengthened by the + Kantian ethics, found no such obstacles as in other parts of Europe. Fair + investigation of biblical subjects had not there been extirpated, as in + Italy and Spain; nor had it been forced into channels which led nowhither, + as in France and southern Germany; nor were men who might otherwise have + pursued it dazzled and drawn away from it by the multitude of splendid + prizes for plausibility, for sophistry, or for silence displayed before + the ecclesiastical vision in England. In the frugal homes of North German + and Dutch professors and pastors high thinking on these great subjects + went steadily on, and the "liberty of teaching," which is the glory of the + northern Continental universities, while it did not secure honest thinkers + against vexations, did at least protect them against the persecutions + which in other countries would have thwarted their studies and starved + their families.(477) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (477) As to the influence of Kant on honest thought in Germany, see +Pfleiderer, as above, chap. i. +</pre> + <p> + In England the admission of the new current of thought was apparently + impossible. The traditional system of biblical interpretation seemed + established on British soil forever. It was knit into the whole fabric of + thought and observance; it was protected by the most justly esteemed + hierarchy the world has ever seen; it was intrenched behind the bishops' + palaces, the cathedral stalls, the professors' chairs, the country + parsonages—all these, as a rule, the seats of high endeavour and + beautiful culture. The older thought held a controlling voice in the + senate of the nation; it was dear to the hearts of all classes; it was + superbly endowed; every strong thinker seemed to hold a brief, or to be in + receipt of a retaining fee for it. As to preferment in the Church, there + was a cynical aphorism current, "He may hold anything who will hold his + tongue."(478) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (478) For an eloquent and at the same time profound statement of the +evils flowing from the "moral terrorism" and "intellectual tyrrany" +at Oxford at the period referred to, see quotation in Pfleiderer, +Development of Theology, p. 371. +</pre> + <p> + For the alloy of interested motives among English Church dignitiaries, see + the pungent criticism of Bishop Hampden by Canon Liddon, in his Life of + Pusey, vol. i, p. 363. + </p> + <p> + Yet, while there was inevitably much alloy of worldly wisdom in the + opposition to the new thought, no just thinker can deny far higher motives + to many, perhaps to most, of the ecclesiastics who were resolute against + it. The evangelical movement incarnate in the Wesleys had not spent its + strength; the movement begun by Pusey, Newman, Keble, and their compeers + was in full force. The aesthetic reaction, represented on the Continent by + Chateaubriand, Manzoni, and Victor Hugo, and in England by Walter Scott, + Pugin, Ruskin, and above all by Wordsworth, came in to give strength to + this barrier. Under the magic of the men who led in this reaction, + cathedrals and churches, which in the previous century had been regarded + by men of culture as mere barbaric masses of stone and mortar, to be + masked without by classic colonnades and within by rococo work in stucco + and papier mache, became even more beloved than in the thirteenth century. + Even men who were repelled by theological disputations were fascinated and + made devoted reactionists by the newly revealed beauties of medieval + architecture and ritual.(479) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (479) A very curious example of this insensibility among persons of +really high culture is to be found in American literature toward the +end of the eighteenth century. Mrs. Adams, wife of John Adams, afterward +President of the United States, but at that time minister to England, +one of the most gifted women of her time, speaking, in her very +interesting letters from England, of her journey to the seashore, refers +to Canterbury Cathedral, seen from her carriage windows, and which she +evidently did not take the trouble to enter, as "looking like a vast +prison." So, too, about the same time, Thomas Jefferson, the American +plenipotentiary in France, a devoted lover of classical and Renaissance +architecture, giving an account of his journey to Paris, never refers to +any of the beautiful cathedrals or churches upon his route. +</pre> + <p> + The centre and fortress of this vast system, and of the reaction against + the philosophy of the eighteenth century, was the University of Oxford. + Orthodoxy was its vaunt, and a special exponent of its spirit and object + of its admiration was its member of Parliament, Mr. William Ewart + Gladstone, who, having begun his political career by a laboured plea for + the union of church and state, ended it by giving that union what is + likely to be a death-blow. The mob at the circus of Constantinople in the + days of the Byzantine emperors was hardly more wildly orthodox than the + mob of students at this foremost seat of learning of the Anglo-Saxon race + during the middle decades of the nineteenth century. The Moslem students + of El Azhar are hardly more intolerant now than these English students + were then. A curious proof of this had been displayed just before the end + of that period. The minister of the United States at the court of St. + James was then Edward Everett. He was undoubtedly the most accomplished + scholar and one of the foremost statesmen that America had produced; his + eloquence in early life had made him perhaps the most admired of American + preachers; his classical learning had at a later period made him Professor + of Greek at Harvard; he had successfully edited the leading American + review, and had taken a high place in American literature; he had been ten + years a member of Congress; he had been again and again elected Governor + of Massachusetts; and in all these posts he had shown amply those + qualities which afterward made him President of Harvard, Secretary of + State of the United States, and a United States Senator. His character and + attainments were of the highest, and, as he was then occupying the + foremost place in the diplomatic service of his country, he was invited to + receive an appropriate honorary degree at Oxford. But, on his presentation + for it in the Sheldonian Theatre, there came a revelation to the people he + represented, and indeed to all Christendom: a riot having been carefully + prepared beforehand by sundry zealots, he was most grossly and ingeniously + insulted by the mob of undergraduates and bachelors of art in the + galleries and masters of arts on the floor; and the reason for this was + that, though by no means radical in his religious opinions, he was thought + to have been in his early life, and to be possibly at that time, below + what was then the Oxford fashion in belief, or rather feeling, regarding + the mystery of the Trinity. + </p> + <p> + At the centre of biblical teaching at Oxford sat Pusey, Regius Professor + of Hebrew, a scholar who had himself remained for a time at a German + university, and who early in life had imbibed just enough of the German + spirit to expose him to suspicion and even to attack. One charge against + him at that time shows curiously what was then expected of a man perfectly + sound in the older Anglican theology. He had ventured to defend holy writ + with the argument that there were fishes actually existing which could + have swallowed the prophet Jonah. The argument proved unfortunate. He was + attacked on the scriptural ground that the fish which swallowed Jonah was + created for that express purpose. He, like others, fell back under the + charm of the old system: his ideas gave force to the reaction: in the + quiet of his study, which, especially after the death of his son, became a + hermitage, he relapsed into patristic and medieval conceptions of + Christianity, enforcing them from the pulpit and in his published works. + He now virtually accepted the famous dictum of Hugo of St. Victor—that + one is first to find what is to be believed, and then to search the + Scriptures for proofs of it. His devotion to the main features of the + older interpretation was seen at its strongest in his utterances regarding + the book of Daniel. Just as Cardinal Bellarmine had insisted that the + doctrine of the incarnation depends upon the retention of the Ptolemaic + astronomy; just as Danzius had insisted that the very continuance of + religion depends on the divine origin of the Hebrew punctuation; just as + Peter Martyr had made everything sacred depend on the literal acceptance + of Genesis; just as Bishop Warburton had insisted that Christianity + absolutely depends upon a right interpretation of the prophecies regarding + Antichrist; just as John Wesley had insisted that the truth of the Bible + depends on the reality of witchcraft; just as, at a later period, Bishop + Wilberforce insisted that the doctrine of the Incarnation depends on the + "Mosaic" statements regarding the origin of man; and just as Canon Liddon + insisted that Christianity itself depends on a literal belief in Noah's + flood, in the transformation of Lot's wife, and in the sojourn of Jonah in + the whale: so did Pusey then virtually insist that Christianity must stand + or fall with the early date of the book of Daniel. Happily, though the + Ptolemaic astronomy, and witchcraft, and the Genesis creation myths, and + the Adam, Noah, Lot, and Jonah legends, and the divine origin of the + Hebrew punctuation, and the prophecies regarding Antichrist, and the early + date of the book of Daniel have now been relegated to the limbo of ontworn + beliefs, Christianity has but come forth the stronger. + </p> + <p> + Nothing seemed less likely than that such a vast intrenched camp as that + of which Oxford was the centre could be carried by an effort proceeding + from a few isolated German and Dutch scholars. Yet it was the unexpected + which occurred; and it is instructive to note that, even at the period + when the champions of the older thought were to all appearance impregnably + intrenched in England, a way had been opened into their citadel, and that + the most effective agents in preparing it were really the very men in the + universities and cathedral chapters who had most distinguished themselves + by uncompromising and intolerant orthodoxy. + </p> + <p> + A rapid survey of the history of general literary criticism at that epoch + will reveal this fact fully. During the last decade of the seventeenth + century there had taken place the famous controversy over the Letters of + Phalaris, in which, against Charles Boyle and his supporters at Oxford, + was pitted Richard Bentley at Cambridge, who insisted that the letters + were spurious. In the series of battles royal which followed, although + Boyle, aided by Atterbury, afterward so noted for his mingled + ecclesiastical and political intrigues, had gained a temporary triumph by + wit and humour, Bentley's final attack had proved irresistible. Drawing + from the stores of his wonderfully wide and minute knowledge, he showed + that the letters could not have been written in the time of Phalaris—proving + this by an exhibition of their style, which could not then have been in + use, of their reference to events which had not then taken place, and of a + mass of considerations which no one but a scholar almost miraculously + gifted could have marshalled so fully. The controversy had attracted + attention not only in England but throughout Europe. With Bentley's reply + it had ended. In spite of public applause at Atterbury's wit, scholars + throughout the world acknowledged Bentley's victory: he was recognised as + the foremost classical scholar of his time; the mastership of Trinity, + which he accepted, and the Bristol bishopric, which he rejected, were his + formal reward. + </p> + <p> + Although, in his new position as head of the greatest college in England, + he went to extreme lengths on the orthodox side in biblical theology, + consenting even to support the doctrine that the Hebrew punctuation was + divinely inspired, this was as nothing compared with the influence of the + system of criticism which he introduced into English studies of classical + literature in preparing the way for the application of a similar system to + ALL literature, whether called sacred or profane. + </p> + <p> + Up to that period there had really been no adequate criticism of ancient + literature. Whatever name had been attached to any ancient writing was + usually accepted as the name of the author: what texts should be imputed + to an author was settled generally on authority. But with Bentley began a + new epoch. His acute intellect and exquisite touch revealed clearly to + English scholars the new science of criticism, and familiarized the minds + of thinking men with the idea that the texts of ancient literature must be + submitted to this science. Henceforward a new spirit reigned among the + best classical scholars, prophetic of more and more light in the greater + field of sacred literature. Scholars, of whom Porson was chief, followed + out this method, and though at times, as in Porson's own case, they were + warned off, with much loss and damage, from the application of it to the + sacred text, they kept alive the better tradition. + </p> + <p> + A hundred years after Bentley's main efforts appeared in Germany another + epoch-making book—Wolf's Introduction to Homer. In this was broached + the theory that the Iliad and Odyssey are not the works of a single great + poet, but are made up of ballad literature wrought into unity by more or + less skilful editing. In spite of various changes and phases of opinion on + this subject since Wolf's day, he dealt a killing blow at the idea that + classical works are necessarily to be taken at what may be termed their + face value. + </p> + <p> + More and more clearly it was seen that the ideas of early copyists, and + even of early possessors of masterpieces in ancient literature, were + entirely different from those to which the modern world is accustomed. It + was seen that manipulations and interpolations in the text by copyists and + possessors had long been considered not merely venial sins, but matters of + right, and that even the issuing of whole books under assumed names had + been practised freely. + </p> + <p> + In 1811 a light akin to that thrown by Bentley and Wolf upon ancient + literature was thrown by Niebuhr upon ancient history. In his History of + Rome the application of scientific principles to the examination of + historical sources was for the first time exhibited largely and + brilliantly. Up to that period the time-honoured utterances of ancient + authorities had been, as a rule, accepted as final: no breaking away, even + from the most absurd of them, was looked upon with favour, and any one + presuming to go behind them was regarded as troublesome and even as + dangerous. + </p> + <p> + Through this sacred conventionalism Niebuhr broke fearlessly, and, though + at times overcritical, he struck from the early history of Rome a vast + mass of accretions, and gave to the world a residue infinitely more + valuable than the original amalgam of myth, legend, and chronicle. + </p> + <p> + His methods were especially brought to bear on students' history by one of + the truest men and noblest scholars that the English race has produced—Arnold + of Rugby—and, in spite of the inevitable heavy conservatism, were + allowed to do their work in the field of ancient history as well as in + that of ancient classical literature. + </p> + <p> + The place of myth in history thus became more and more understood, and + historical foundations, at least so far as SECULAR history was concerned, + were henceforth dealt with in a scientific spirit. The extension of this + new treatment to ALL ancient literature and history was now simply a + matter of time. + </p> + <p> + Such an extension had already begun; for in 1829 had appeared Milman's + History of the Jews. In this work came a further evolution of the truths + and methods suggested by Bentley, Wolf, and Niebuhr, and their application + to sacred history was made strikingly evident. Milman, though a clergyman, + treated the history of the chosen people in the light of modern knowledge + of Oriental and especially of Semitic peoples. He exhibited sundry great + biblical personages of the wandering days of Israel as sheiks or emirs or + Bedouin chieftains; and the tribes of Israel as obedient then to the same + general laws, customs, and ideas governing wandering tribes in the same + region now. He dealt with conflicting sources somewhat in the spirit of + Bentley, and with the mythical, legendary, and miraculous somewhat in the + spirit of Niebuhr. This treatment of the history of the Jews, simply as + the development of an Oriental tribe, raised great opposition. Such + champions of orthodoxy as Bishop Mant and Dr. Faussett straightway took + the field, and with such effect that the Family Library, a very valuable + series in which Milman's history appeared, was put under the ban, and its + further publication stopped. For years Milman, though a man of exquisite + literary and lofty historical gifts, as well as of most honourable + character, was debarred from preferment and outstripped by ecclesiastics + vastly inferior to him in everything save worldly wisdom; for years he was + passed in the race for honours by divines who were content either to hold + briefs for all the contemporary unreason which happened to be popular, or + to keep their mouths shut altogether. This opposition to him extended to + his works. For many years they were sneered at, decried, and kept from the + public as far as possible. + </p> + <p> + Fortunately, the progress of events lifted him, before the closing years + of his life, above all this opposition. As Dean of St. Paul's he really + outranked the contemporary archbishops: he lived to see his main ideas + accepted, and his History of Latin Christianity received as certainly one + of the most valuable, and no less certainly the most attractive, of all + Church histories ever written. + </p> + <p> + The two great English histories of Greece—that by Thirlwall, which + was finished, and that by Grote, which was begun, in the middle years of + the nineteenth century—came in to strengthen this new development. + By application of the critical method to historical sources, by pointing + out more and more fully the inevitable part played by myth and legend in + early chronicles, by displaying more and more clearly the ease with which + interpolations of texts, falsifications of statements, and attributions to + pretended authors were made, they paved the way still further toward a + just and fruitful study of sacred literature.(480) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (480) For Mr. Gladstone's earlier opinion, see his Church and State, and +Macaulay's review of it. For Pusey, see Mozley, Ward, Newman's +Apologia, Dean Church, etc., and especially his Life, by Liddon. Very +characteristic touches are given in vol. i, showing the origin of many +of his opinions (see letter on p. 184). For the scandalous treatment of +Mr. Everett by the clerical mob at Oxford, see a rather jaunty account +of the preparations and of the whole performance in a letter written at +the time from Oxford by the late Dean Church, in The Life and Letters of +Dean Church, London, 1894, pp. 40, 41. For a brief but excellent summary +of the character and services of Everett, see J. F. Rhodes's History of +the United States from the Compromise of 1850, New York, 1893, vol. +i, pp. 291 et seq. For a succinct and brilliant history of the +Bentley-Boyle controversy, see Macauley's article on Bentley in the +Encyclopaedia Britannica; also Beard's Hibbert Lectures for 1893, pp. +344, 345; also Dissertation in Bentley's work, edited by Dyce, London, +1836, vol. i, especially the preface. For Wolf, see his Prolegomena ad +Homerum, Halle, 1795; for its effects, see the admirable brief statement +in Beard, as above, p. 345. For Niebuhr, see his Roman History, +translated by Hare and Thirlwall, London, 1828; also Beard, as above. +For Milman's view, see, as a specimen, his History of the Jews, last +edition, especially pp. 15-27. For a noble tribute to his character, see +the preface to Lecky's History of European Morals. For Thirlwall, see +his History of Greece, passim; also his letters; also his Charge of the +Bishop of St. David's, 1863. +</pre> + <p> + Down to the middle of the nineteenth century the traditionally orthodox + side of English scholarship, while it had not been able to maintain any + effective quarantine against Continental criticism of classical + literature, had been able to keep up barriers fairly strong against + Continental discussions of sacred literature. But in the second half of + the nineteenth century these barriers were broken at many points, and, the + stream of German thought being united with the current of devotion to + truth in England, there appeared early in 1860 a modest volume entitled + Essays and Reviews. This work discussed sundry of the older theological + positions which had been rendered untenable by modern research, and + brought to bear upon them the views of the newer school of biblical + interpretation. The authors were, as a rule, scholars in the prime of + life, holding influential positions in the universities and public + schools. They were seven—the first being Dr. Temple, a successor of + Arnold at Rugby; and the others, the Rev. Dr. Rowland Williams, Prof. + Baden Powell, the Rev. H. B. Wilson, Mr. C. W. Goodwin, the Rev. Mark + Pattison, and the Rev. Prof. Jowett—the only one of the seven not in + holy orders being Goodwin. All the articles were important, though the + first, by Temple, on The Education of the World, and the last, by Jowett, + on The Interpretation of Scripture, being the most moderate, served most + effectually as entering wedges into the old tradition. + </p> + <p> + At first no great attention was paid to the book, the only notice being + the usual attempts in sundry clerical newspapers to pooh-pooh it. But in + October, 1860, appeared in the Westminster Review an article exulting in + the work as an evidence that the new critical method had at last + penetrated the Church of England. + </p> + <p> + The opportunity for defending the Church was at once seized by no less a + personage than Bishop Wilberforce, of Oxford, the same who a few months + before had secured a fame more lasting than enviable by his attacks on + Darwin and the evolutionary theory. His first onslaught was made in a + charge to his clergy. This he followed up with an article in the Quarterly + Review, very explosive in its rhetoric, much like that which he had + devoted in the same periodical to Darwin. The bishop declared that the + work tended "toward infidelity, if not to atheism"; that the writers had + been "guilty of criminal levity"; that, with the exception of the essay by + Dr. Temple, their writings were "full of sophistries and scepticisms." He + was especially bitter against Prof. Jowett's dictum, "Interpret the + Scripture like any other book"; he insisted that Mr. Goodwin's treatment + of the Mosaic account of the origin of man "sweeps away the whole basis of + inspiration and leaves no place for the Incarnation"; and through the + article were scattered such rhetorical adornments as the words "infidel," + "atheistic," "false," and "wanton." It at once attracted wide attention, + but its most immediate effect was to make the fortune of Essays and + Reviews, which was straightway demanded on every hand, went through + edition after edition, and became a power in the land. At this a panic + began, and with the usual results of panic—much folly and some + cruelty. Addresses from clergy and laity, many of them frantic with rage + and fear, poured in upon the bishops, begging them to save Christianity + and the Church: a storm of abuse arose: the seven essayists were + stigmatized as "the seven extinguishers of the seven lamps of the + Apocalypse," "the seven champions NOT of Christendom." As a result of all + this pressure, Sumner, Archbishop of Canterbury, one of the last of the + old, kindly, bewigged pluralists of the Georgian period, headed a + declaration, which was signed by the Archbishop of York and a long list of + bishops, expressing pain at the appearance of the book, but doubts as to + the possibility of any effective dealing with it. This letter only made + matters worse. The orthodox decried it as timid, and the liberals + denounced it as irregular. The same influences were exerted in the sister + island, and the Protestant archbishops in Ireland issued a joint letter + warning the faithful against the "disingenuousness" of the book. + Everything seemed to increase the ferment. A meeting of clergy and laity + having been held at Oxford in the matter of electing a Professor of + Sanscrit, the older orthodox party, having made every effort to defeat the + eminent scholar Max Miller, and all in vain, found relief after their + defeat in new denunciations of Essays and Reviews. + </p> + <p> + Of the two prelates who might have been expected to breast the storm, + Tait, Bishop of London, afterward Archbishop of Canterbury, bent to it for + a period, though he soon recovered himself and did good service; the + other, Thirlwall, Bishop of St. David's, bided his time, and, when the + proper moment came, struck most effective blows for truth and justice. + </p> + <p> + Tait, large-minded and shrewd, one of the most statesmanlike of prelates, + at first endeavoured to detach Temple and Jowett from their associates; + but, though Temple was broken down with a load of care, and especially by + the fact that he had upon his shoulders the school at Rugby, whose patrons + had become alarmed at his connection with the book, he showed a most + refreshing courage and manliness. A passage from his letters to the Bishop + of London runs as follows: "With regard to my own conduct I can only say + that nothing on earth will induce me to do what you propose. I do not + judge for others, but in me it would be base and untrue." On another + occasion Dr. Temple, when pressed in the interest of the institution of + learning under his care to detach himself from his associates in writing + the book, declared to a meeting of the masters of the school that, if any + statements were made to the effect that he disapproved of the other + writers in the volume, he should probably find it his duty to contradict + them. Another of these letters to the Bishop of London contains sundry + passages of great force. One is as follows: "Many years ago you urged us + from the university pulpit to undertake the critical study of the Bible. + You said that it was a dangerous study, but indispensable. You described + its difficulties, and those who listened must have felt a confidence (as I + assuredly did, for I was there) that if they took your advice and entered + on the task, you, at any rate, would never join in treating them unjustly + if their study had brought with it the difficulties you described. Such a + study, so full of difficulties, imperatively demands freedom for its + condition. To tell a man to study, and yet bid him, under heavy penalties, + come to the same conclusions with those who have not studied, is to mock + him. If the conclusions are prescribed, the study is precluded." And + again, what, as coming from a man who has since held two of the most + important bishoprics in the English Church, is of great importance: "What + can be a grosser superstition than the theory of literal inspiration? But + because that has a regular footing it is to be treated as a good man's + mistake, while the courage to speak the truth about the first chapter of + Genesis is a wanton piece of wickedness." + </p> + <p> + The storm howled on. In the Convocation of Canterbury it was especially + violent. In the Lower House Archdeacon Denison insisted on the greatest + severity, as he said, "for the sake of the young who are tainted, and + corrupted, and thrust almost to hell by the action of this book." At + another time the same eminent churchman declared: "Of all books in any + language which I ever laid my hands on, this is incomparably the worst; it + contains all the poison which is to be found in Tom Paine's Age of Reason, + while it has the additional disadvantage of having been written by + clergymen." + </p> + <p> + Hysterical as all this was, the Upper House was little more + self-contained. Both Tait and Thirlwall, trying to make some headway + against the swelling tide, were for a time beaten back by Wilberforce, who + insisted on the duty of the Church to clear itself publicly from + complicity with men who, as he said, "gave up God's Word, Creation, + redemption, and the work of the Holy Ghost." + </p> + <p> + The matter was brought to a curious issue by two prosecutions—one + against the Rev. Dr. Williams by the Bishop of Salisbury, the other + against the Rev. Mr. Wilson by one of his clerical brethren. The first + result was that both these authors were sentenced to suspension from their + offices for a year. At this the two condemned clergymen appealed to the + Queen in Council. Upon the judicial committee to try the case in last + resort sat the lord chancellor, the two archbishops, and the Bishop of + London; and one occurrence now brought into especial relief the power of + the older theological reasoning and ecclesiastical zeal to close the minds + of the best of men to the simplest principles of right and justice. Among + the men of his time most deservedly honoured for lofty character, thorough + scholarship, and keen perception of right and justice was Dr. Pusey. No + one doubted then, and no one doubts now, that he would have gone to the + stake sooner than knowingly countenance wrong or injustice; and yet we + find him at this time writing a series of long and earnest letters to the + Bishop of London, who, as a judge, was hearing this case, which involved + the livelihood and even the good name of the men on trial, pointing out to + the bishop the evil consequences which must follow should the authors of + Essays and Reviews be acquitted, and virtually beseeching the judges, on + grounds of expediency, to convict them. Happily, Bishop Tait was too just + a man to be thrown off his bearings by appeals such as this. + </p> + <p> + The decision of the court, as finally rendered by the lord chancellor, + virtually declared it to be no part of the duty of the tribunal to + pronounce any opinion upon the book; that the court only had to do with + certain extracts which had been presented. Among these was one adduced in + support of a charge against Mr. Wilson—that he denied the doctrine + of eternal punishment. On this the court decided that it did "not find in + the formularies of the English Church any such distinct declaration upon + the subject as to require it to punish the expression of a hope by a + clergyman that even the ultimate pardon of the wicked who are condemned in + the day of judgment may be consistent with the will of Almighty God." + While the archbishops dissented from this judgment, Bishop Tait united in + it with the lord chancellor and the lay judges. + </p> + <p> + And now the panic broke out more severely than ever. Confusion became + worse confounded. The earnest-minded insisted that the tribunal had + virtually approved Essays and Reviews; the cynical remarked that it had + "dismissed hell with costs." An alliance was made at once between the more + zealous High and Low Church men, and Oxford became its headquarters: Dr. + Pusey and Archdeacon Denison were among the leaders, and an impassioned + declaration was posted to every clergyman in England and Ireland, with a + letter begging him, "for the love of God," to sign it. Thus it was that in + a very short time eleven thousand signatures were obtained. Besides this, + deputations claiming to represent one hundred and thirty-seven thousand + laymen waited on the archbishops to thank them for dissenting from the + judgment. The Convocation of Canterbury also plunged into the fray, Bishop + Wilberforce being the champion of the older orthodoxy, and Bishop Tait of + the new. Caustic was the speech made by Bishop Thirlwall, in which he + declared that he considered the eleven thousand names, headed by that of + Pusey, attached to the Oxford declaration "in the light of a row of + figures preceded by a decimal point, so that, however far the series may + be advanced, it never can rise to the value of a single unit." + </p> + <p> + In spite of all that could be done, the act of condemnation was carried in + Convocation. + </p> + <p> + The last main echo of this whole struggle against the newer mode of + interpretation was heard when the chancellor, referring to the matter in + the House of Lords, characterized the ecclesiastical act as "simply a + series of well-lubricated terms—a sentence so oily and saponaceous + that no one can grasp it; like an eel, it slips through your fingers, and + is simply nothing." + </p> + <p> + The word "saponaceous" necessarily elicited a bitter retort from Bishop + Wilberforce; but perhaps the most valuable judgment on the whole matter + was rendered by Bishop Tait, who declared, "These things have so + effectually frightened the clergy that I think there is scarcely a bishop + on the bench, unless it be the Bishop of St. David's (Thirlwall), that is + not useless for the purpose of preventing the widespread alienation of + intelligent men." + </p> + <p> + During the whole controversy, and for some time afterward, the press was + burdened with replies, ponderous and pithy, lurid and vapid, vitriolic and + unctuous, but in the main bearing the inevitable characteristics of pleas + for inherited opinions stimulated by ample endowments. + </p> + <p> + The authors of the book seemed for a time likely to be swept out of the + Church. One of the least daring but most eminent, finding himself + apparently forsaken, seemed, though a man of very tough fibre, about to + die of a broken heart; but sturdy English sense at last prevailed. The + storm passed, and afterward came the still, small voice. Really sound + thinkers throughout England, especially those who held no briefs for + conventional orthodoxy, recognised the service rendered by the book. It + was found that, after all, there existed even among churchmen a great mass + of public opinion in favour of giving a full hearing to the reverent + expression of honest thought, and inclined to distrust any cause which + subjected fair play to zeal. + </p> + <p> + The authors of the work not only remained in the Church of England, but + some of them have since represented the broader views, though not always + with their early courage, in the highest and most influential positions in + the Anglican Church.(481) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (481) For the origin of Essays and Reviews, see Edinburgh Review, April, +1861, p. 463. For the reception of the book, see the Westminster Review, +October, 1860. For the attack on it by Bishop Wilberforce, see his +article in the Quarterly Review, January, 1861; for additional facts, +Edinburgh Review, April, 1861, pp. 461 et seq. For action on the book +by Convocation, see Dublin Review, May, 1861, citing Jelf et al.; +also Davidson's Life of Archbishop Tate, vol. i, chap. xii. For the +Archepiscopal Letter, see Dublin Review, as above; also Life of Bishop +Wilberforce, by his son, London, 1882, vol. iii, pp. 4,5; it is there +stated that Wilberforce drew upon the letter. For curious inside views +of the Essays and Reviews controversy, including the course of Bishop +Hampden, Tait, et al., see Life of Bishop Wilberforce, by his son, as +above, pp. 3-11; also pp. 141-149. For the denunciation of the present +Bishop of London (Temple) as a "leper," etc., see ibid., pp. 319, 320. +For general treatment of Temple, see Fraser's Magazine, December, 1869. +For very interesting correspondence, see Davidson's Life of Archbishop +Tait, as above. For Archdeacon Denison's speeches, see ibid, vol. i, +p. 302. For Dr. Pusey's letter to Bishop Tait, urging conviction of the +Essayists and Reviewers, ibid, p. 314. For the striking letters of +Dr. Temple, ibid., pp. 290 et seq.; also The Life and Letters of Dean +Stanley. For replies, see Charge of the Bishop of Oxford, 1863; +also Replies to Essays and Reviews, Parker, London, with preface by +Wilberforce; also Aids to Faith, edited by the Bishop of Gloucester, +London, 1861; also those by Jelf, Burgon, et al. For the legal +proceedings, see Quarterly Review, April, 1864; also Davidson, as above. +For Bishop Thirlwall's speech, see Chronicle of Convocation, quoted in +Life of Tait, vol. i, p. 320. For Tait's tribute to Thirlwall, see +Life of Tait, vol. i, p. 325. For a remarkable able review, and in most +charming form, of the ideas of Bishop Wilberforce and Lord Chancellor +Westbury, see H. D. Traill, The New Lucian, first dialogue. For the +cynical phrase referred to, see Nash, Life of Lord Westbury, vol. ii, p. +78, where the noted epitaph is given, as follows: + + "RICHARD BARON WESTBURY + Lord High Chancellor of England, + He was an eminent Christian, + An energetic and merciful Statesman, + And a still more eminent and merciful Judge. + During his three years' tenure of office + He abolished the ancient method of conveying land, +The time-honoured institution of the Insolvent's Court, And + The Eternity of Punishment. + Toward the close of his early career, +In the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, He dismissed Hell with costs, +And took away from the Orthodox members of the Church of England + Their last hope of everlasting damnation." +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0087" id="link2H_4_0087"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IV. THE CLOSING STRUGGLE. + </h2> + <p> + The storm aroused by Essays and Reviews had not yet subsided when a far + more serious tempest burst upon the English theological world. + </p> + <p> + In 1862 appeared a work entitled The Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua + Critically Examined its author being Colenso, Anglican Bishop of Natal, in + South Africa. He had formerly been highly esteemed as fellow and tutor at + Cambridge, master at Harrow, author of various valuable text-books in + mathematics; and as long as he exercised his powers within the limits of + popular orthodoxy he was evidently in the way to the highest positions in + the Church: but he chose another path. His treatment of his subject was + reverent, but he had gradually come to those conclusions, then so daring, + now so widespread among Christian scholars, that the Pentateuch, with much + valuable historical matter, contains much that is unhistorical; that a + large portion of it was the work of a comparatively late period in Jewish + history; that many passages in Deuteronomy could only have been written + after the Jews settled in Canaan; that the Mosaic law was not in force + before the captivity; that the books of Chronicles were clearly written as + an afterthought, to enforce the views of the priestly caste; and that in + all the books there is much that is mythical and legendary. + </p> + <p> + Very justly has a great German scholar recently adduced this work of a + churchman relegated to the most petty of bishoprics in one of the most + remote corners of the world, as a proof "that the problems of biblical + criticism can no longer be suppressed; that they are in the air of our + time, so that theology could not escape them even if it took the wings of + the morning and dwelt in the uttermost parts of the sea." + </p> + <p> + The bishop's statements, which now seem so moderate, then aroused horror. + Especial wrath was caused by some of his arithmetical arguments, and among + them those which showed that an army of six hundred thousand men could not + have been mobilized in a single night; that three millions of people, with + their flocks and herds, could neither have obtained food on so small and + arid a desert as that over which they were said to have wandered during + forty years, nor water from a single well; and that the butchery of two + hundred thousand Midianites by twelve thousand Israelites, "exceeding + infinitely in atrocity the tragedy at Cawnpore, had happily only been + carried out on paper." There was nothing of the scoffer in him. While + preserving his own independence, he had kept in touch with the most + earnest thought both among European scholars and in the little flock + intrusted to his care. He evidently remembered what had resulted from the + attempt to hold the working classes in the towns of France, Germany, and + Italy to outworn beliefs; he had found even the Zulus, whom he thought to + convert, suspicious of the legendary features of the Old Testament, and + with his clear practical mind he realized the danger which threatened the + English Church and Christianity—the danger of tying its religion and + morality to interpretations and conceptions of Scripture more and more + widely seen and felt to be contrary to facts. He saw the especial peril of + sham explanations, of covering up facts which must soon be known, and + which, when revealed, must inevitably bring the plain people of England to + regard their teachers, even the most deserving, as "solemnly constituted + impostors"—ecclesiastics whose tenure depends on assertions which + they know to be untrue. Therefore it was that, when his catechumens + questioned him regarding some of the Old Testament legends, the bishop + determined to tell the truth. He says: "My heart answered in the words of + the prophet, 'Shall a man speak lies in the name of the Lord?' I + determined not to do so." + </p> + <p> + But none of these considerations availed in his behalf at first. + </p> + <p> + The outcry against the work was deafening: churchmen and dissenters rushed + forward to attack it. Archdeacon Denison, chairman of the committee of + Convocation appointed to examine it, uttered a noisy anathema. Convocation + solemnly condemned it; and a zealous colonial bishop, relying upon a + nominal supremacy, deposed and excommunicated its author, declaring him + "given over to Satan." On both sides of the Atlantic the press groaned + with "answers," some of these being especially injurious to the cause they + were intended to serve, and none more so than sundry efforts by the + bishops themselves. One of the points upon which they attacked him was his + assertion that the reference in Leviticus to the hare chewing its cud + contains an error. Upon this Prof. Hitzig, of Leipsic, one of the best + Hebrew scholars of his time, remarked: "Your bishops are making themselves + the laughing-stock of Europe. Every Hebraist knows that the animal + mentioned in Leviticus is really the hare;... every zoologist knows that + it does not chew the cud."(482) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (482) For the citation referred to, see Pfleiderer, as above, book iv, +chap. ii. For the passages referred to as provoking especial wrath, see +Colenso, Lectures on the Pentateuch and the Moabite Stone, 1876, p. 217. +For the episode regarding the hare chewing the cud, see Cox, Life of +Colenso, vol. i, p. 240. The following epigram went the rounds: +</pre> + <p> + "The bishops all have sworn to shed their blood To prove 'tis true that + the hare doth chew the cud. O bishops, doctors, and divines, beware—Weak + is the faith that hangs upon a HAIR!" + </p> + <p> + On Colenso's return to Natal, where many of the clergy and laity who felt + grateful for his years of devotion to them received him with signs of + affection, an attempt was made to ruin these clergymen by depriving them + of their little stipends, and to terrify the simple-minded laity by + threatening them with the same "greater excommunication" which had been + inflicted upon their bishop. To make the meaning of this more evident, the + vicar-general of the Bishop of Cape Town met Colenso at the door of his + own cathedral, and solemnly bade him "depart from the house of God as one + who has been handed over to the Evil One." The sentence of excommunication + was read before the assembled faithful, and they were enjoined to treat + their bishop as "a heathen man and a publican." But these and a long + series of other persecutions created a reaction in his favour. + </p> + <p> + There remained to Colenso one bulwark which his enemies found stronger + than they had imagined—the British courts of justice. The greatest + efforts were now made to gain the day before these courts, to humiliate + Colenso, and to reduce to beggary the clergy who remained faithful to him; + and it is worthy of note that one of the leaders in preparing the legal + plea of the com mittee against him was Mr. Gladstone. + </p> + <p> + But this bulwark proved impregnable: both the Judicial Committee of the + Privy Council and the Rolls Court decided in Colenso's favour. Not only + were his enemies thus forbidden to deprive him of his salary, but their + excommunication of him was made null and void; it became, indeed, a + subject of ridicule, and even a man so nurtured in religious sentiment as + John Keble confessed and lamented that the English people no longer + believed in excommunication. The bitterness of the defeated found vent in + the utterances of the colonial metropolitan who had excommunicated Colenso—Bishop + Gray, "the Lion of Cape Town"—who denounced the judgment as "awful + and profane," and the Privy Council as "a masterpiece of Satan" and "the + great dragon of the English Church." Even Wilberforce, careful as he was + to avoid attacking anything established, alluded with deep regret to "the + devotion of the English people to the law in matters of this sort." + </p> + <p> + Their failure in the courts only seemed to increase the violence of the + attacking party. The Anglican communion, both in England and America, was + stirred to its depths against the heretic, and various dissenting bodies + strove to show equal zeal. Great pains were taken to root out his + reputation: it was declared that he had merely stolen the ideas of + rationalists on the Continent by wholesale, and peddled them out in + England at retail; the fact being that, while he used all the sources of + information at his command, and was large-minded enough to put himself + into relations with the best biblical scholarship of the Continent, he was + singularly independent in his judgment, and that his investigations were + of lasting value in modifying Continental thought. Kuenen, the most + distinguished of all his contemporaries in this field, modified, as he + himself declared, one of his own leading theories after reading Colenso's + argument; and other Continental scholars scarcely less eminent + acknowledged their great indebtedness to the English scholar for original + suggestions.(483) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (483) For interesting details of the Colenso persecution, see Davidson's +Life of Tait, chaps. xii and xiv; also the Lives of Bishops Wilberforce +and Gray. For full accounts of the struggle, see Cox, Life of Bishop +Colenso, London, 1888, especially vol. i, chap. v. For the dramatic +performance at Colenso's cathedral, see vol. ii, pp. 14-25. For a very +impartial and appreciative statement regarding Colenso's work, see +Cheyne, Founders of Old Testament Criticism, London, 1893, chap. ix. For +testimony to the originality and value of Colenso's contributions, see +Kuenen, Origin and Composition of the Hexateuch, Introduction, pp. xx, +as follows: "Colenso directed my attention to difficulties which I had +hitherto failed to observe or adequately to reckon with; and as to +the opinion of his labours current in Germany, I need only say that, +inasmuch as Ewald, Bunsen, Bleek, and Knabel were every one of them +logically forced to revise their theories in the light of the English +bishop's research, there was small reason in the cry that his methods +were antiquated and his objections stale." For a very brief but +effective tribute to Colenso as an independent thinker whose merits are +now acknowledged by Continental scholars, see Pfleiderer, Development of +Theory, as above. +</pre> + <p> + But the zeal of the bishop's enemies did not end with calumny. He was + socially ostracized—more completely even than Lyell had been after + the publication of his Principles of Geology thirty years before. Even old + friends left him, among them Frederick Denison Maurice, who, when himself + under the ban of heresy, had been defended by Colenso. Nor was Maurice the + only heretic who turned against him; Matthew Arnold attacked him, and set + up, as a true ideal of the work needed to improve the English Church and + people, of all books in the world, Spinoza's Tractatus. A large part of + the English populace was led to regard him as an "infidel," a "traitor," + an "apostate," and even as "an unclean being"; servants left his house in + horror; "Tray, Blanche, and Sweetheart were let loose upon him"; and one + of the favourite amusements of the period among men of petty wit and no + convictions was the devising of light ribaldry against him.(484) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (484) One of the nonsense verses in vogue at the time summed up the +controversy as follows: + + "A bishop there was of Natal, + Who had a Zulu for his pal; + Said the Zulu, 'My dear, + Don't you think Genesis queer?' + Which coverted my lord of Natal." +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> +But verses quite as good appeared on the other side, one of them being +as follows: + + "Is this, then, the great Colenso, + Who all the bishops offends so? + Said Sam of the Soap, + Bring fagots and rope, + For oh! he's got no friends, oh!" +</pre> + <p> + For Matthew Arnold's attack on Colenso, see Macmillan's Magazine, January, + 1863. For Maurice, see the references already given. + </p> + <p> + In the midst of all this controversy stood three men, each of whom has + connected his name with it permanently. + </p> + <p> + First of these was Samuel Wilberforce, at that time Bishop of Oxford. The + gifted son of William Wilberforce, who had been honoured throughout the + world for his efforts in the suppression of the slave trade, he had been + rapidly advanced in the English Church, and was at this time a prelate of + wide influence. He was eloquent and diplomatic, witty and amiable, always + sure to be with his fellow-churchmen and polite society against + uncomfortable changes. Whether the struggle was against the slave power in + the United States, or the squirearchy in Great Britain, or the evolution + theory of Darwin, or the new views promulgated by the Essayists and + Reviewers, he was always the suave spokesman of those who opposed every + innovator and "besought him to depart out of their coasts." Mingling in + curious proportions a truly religious feeling with care for his own + advancement, his remarkable power in the pulpit gave him great strength to + carry out his purposes, and his charming facility in being all things to + all men, as well as his skill in evading the consequences of his many + mistakes, gained him the sobriquet of "Soapy Sam." If such brethren of his + in the episcopate as Thirlwall and Selwyn and Tait might claim to be in + the apostolic succession, Wilberforce was no less surely in the succession + from the most gifted and eminently respectable Sadducees who held high + preferment under Pontius Pilate. + </p> + <p> + By a curious coincidence he had only a few years before preached the + sermon when Colenso was consecrated in Westminster Abbey, and one passage + in it may be cited as showing the preacher's gift of prophecy both + hortatory and predictive. Wilberforce then said to Colenso: "You need + boldness to risk all for God—to stand by the truth and its + supporters against men's threatenings and the devil's wrath;... you need a + patient meekness to bear the galling calumnies and false surmises with + which, if you are faithful, that same Satanic working, which, if it could, + would burn your body, will assuredly assail you daily through the pens and + tongues of deceivers and deceived, who, under a semblance of a zeal for + Christ, will evermore distort your words, misrepresent your motives, + rejoice in your failings, exaggerate your errors, and seek by every + poisoned breath of slander to destroy your powers of service."(485) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (485) For the social ostracism of Colenso, see works already cited; also +Cox's Life of Colenso. For the passage from Wilberforce's sermon at the +consecration of Colenso, see Rev. Sir G. W. Cox, The Church of England +and the Teaching of Bishop Colenso. For Wilberforce's relations to the +Colenso case in general, see his Life, by his son, vol. iii, especially +pp. 113-126, 229-231. For Keble's avowal that no Englishman believes +in excommunication, ibid., p. 128. For a guarded statement of Dean +Stanley's opinion regarding Wilberforce and Newman, see a letter from +Dean Church to the Warden of Keble, in Life and Letters of Dean Church, +p. 293. +</pre> + <p> + Unfortunately, when Colenso followed this advice his adviser became the + most untiring of his persecutors. While leaving to men like the + Metropolitan of Cape Town and Archdeacon Denison the noisy part of the + onslaught, Wilberforce was among those who were most zealous in devising + more effective measures. + </p> + <p> + But time, and even short time, has redressed the balance between the two + prelates. Colenso is seen more and more of all men as a righteous leader + in a noble effort to cut the Church loose from fatal entanglements with an + outworn system of interpretation; Wilberforce, as the remembrance of his + eloquence and of his personal charm dies away, and as the revelations of + his indiscreet biographers lay bare his modes of procedure, is seen to + have left, on the whole, the most disappointing record made by any + Anglican prelate during the nineteenth century. + </p> + <p> + But there was a far brighter page in the history of the Church of England; + for the second of the three who linked their names with that of Colenso in + the struggle was Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Dean of Westminster. His action + during this whole persecution was an honour not only to the Anglican + Church but to humanity. For his own manhood and the exercise of his own + intellectual freedom he had cheerfully given up the high preferment in the + Church which had been easily within his grasp. To him truth and justice + were more than the decrees of a Convocation of Canterbury or of a + Pan-Anglican Synod; in this as in other matters he braved the storm, never + yielded to theological prejudice, from first to last held out a brotherly + hand to the persecuted bishop, and at the most critical moment opened to + him the pulpit of Westminster Abbey.(486) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (486) For interesting testimony to Stanley's character, from a quarter +from whence it would have been least expected, see a reminiscence of +Lord Shaftesbury in the Life of Frances Power Cobbe, London and New +York, 1894. The late Bishop of Massachusetts, Phillips Brooks, whose +death was a bereavement to his country and to the Church universal, once +gave the present writer a vivid description of a scene witnessed by him +in the Convocation of Canterbury, when Stanley virtually withstood alone +the obstinate traditionalism of the whole body in the matter of the +Athanasian Creed. It is to be hoped that this account may be brought to +light among the letters written by Brooks at that time. See also Dean +Church's Life and Letters, p. 294, for a very important testimony. +</pre> + <p> + The third of the high ecclesiastics of the Church of England whose names + were linked in this contest was Thirlwall. He was undoubtedly the foremost + man in the Church of his time—the greatest ecclesiastical statesman, + the profoundest historical scholar, the theologian of clearest vision in + regard to the relations between the Church and his epoch. Alone among his + brother bishops at this period, he stood "four square to all the winds + that blew," as during all his life he stood against all storms of clerical + or popular unreason. He had his reward. He was never advanced beyond a + poor Welsh bishopric; but, though he saw men wretchedly inferior + constantly promoted beyond him, he never flinched, never lost heart or + hope, but bore steadily on, refusing to hold a brief for lucrative + injustice, and resisting to the last all reaction and fanaticism, thus + preserving not only his own self-respect but the future respect of the + English nation for the Church. + </p> + <p> + A few other leading churchmen were discreetly kind to Colenso, among them + Tait, who had now been made Archbishop of Canterbury; but, manly as he + was, he was somewhat more cautious in this matter than those who most + revere his memory could now wish. + </p> + <p> + In spite of these friends the clerical onslaught was for a time effective; + Colenso, so far as England was concerned, was discredited and virtually + driven from his functions. But this enforced leisure simply gave him more + time to struggle for the protection of his native flock against colonial + rapacity and to continue his great work on the Bible. + </p> + <p> + His work produced its effect. It had much to do with arousing a new + generation of English, Scotch, and American scholars. While very many of + his minor statements have since been modified or rejected, his main + conclusion was seen more and more clearly to be true. Reverently and in + the deepest love for Christianity he had made the unhistorical character + of the Pentateuch clear as noonday. Henceforth the crushing weight of the + old interpretation upon science and morality and religion steadily and + rapidly grew less and less. That a new epoch had come was evident, and out + of many proofs of this we may note two of the most striking. + </p> + <p> + For many years the Bampton Lectures at Oxford had been considered as + adding steadily and strongly to the bulwarks of the old orthodoxy. If now + and then orthodoxy had appeared in danger from such additions to the + series as those made by Dr. Hampden, these lectures had been, as a rule, + saturated with the older traditions of the Anglican Church. But now there + was an evident change. The departures from the old paths were many and + striking, until at last, in 1893, came the lectures on Inspiration by the + Rev. Dr. Sanday, Ireland Professor of Exegesis in the University of + Oxford. In these, concessions were made to the newer criticism, which at + an earlier time would have driven the lecturer not only out of the Church + but out of any decent position in society; for Prof. Sanday not only gave + up a vast mass of other ideas which the great body of churchmen had + regarded as fundamental, but accepted a number of conclusions established + by the newer criticism. He declared that Kuenen and Wellhausen had mapped + out, on the whole rightly, the main stages of development in the history + of Hebrew literature; he incorporated with approval the work of other + eminent heretics; he acknowledged that very many statements in the + Pentateuch show "the naive ideas and usages of a primitive age." But, most + important of all, he gave up the whole question in regard to the book of + Daniel. Up to a time then very recent, the early authorship and predictive + character of the book of Daniel were things which no one was allowed for a + moment to dispute. Pusey, as we have seen, had proved to the controlling + parties in the English Church that Christianity must stand or fall with + the traditional view of this book; and now, within a few years of Pusey's + death, there came, in his own university, speaking from the pulpit of St. + Mary's whence he had so often insisted upon the absolute necessity of + maintaining the older view, this professor of biblical criticism, a doctor + of divinity, showing conclusively as regards the book of Daniel that the + critical view had won the day; that the name of Daniel is only assumed; + that the book is in no sense predictive, but was written, mainly at least, + after the events it describes; that "its author lived at the time of the + Maccabean struggle"; that it is very inaccurate even in the simple facts + which it cites; and hence that all the vast fabric erected upon its + predictive character is baseless. + </p> + <p> + But another evidence of the coming in of a new epoch was even more + striking. + </p> + <p> + To uproot every growth of the newer thought, to destroy even every germ + that had been planted by Colenso and men like him, a special movement was + begun, of which the most important part was the establishment, at the + University of Oxford, of a college which should bring the old opinion with + crushing force against the new thought, and should train up a body of + young men by feeding them upon the utterances of the fathers, of the + medieval doctors, and of the apologists of the seventeenth and eighteenth + centuries; and should keep them in happy ignorance of the reforming spirit + of the sixteenth and the scientific spirit of the nineteenth century. + </p> + <p> + The new college thus founded bore the name of the poet most widely beloved + among high churchmen; large endowments flowed in upon it; a showy chapel + was erected in accordance throughout with the strictest rules of medieval + ecclesiology. As if to strike the keynote of the thought to be fostered in + the new institution, one of the most beautiful of pseudo-medieval pictures + was given the place of honour in its hall; and the college, lofty and + gaudy, loomed high above the neighbouring modest abode of Oxford science. + Kuenen might be victorious in Holland, and Wellhausen in Germany, and + Robertson Smith in Scotland—even Professors Driver, Sanday, and + Cheyne might succeed Dr. Pusey as expounders of the Old Testament at + Oxford—but Keble College, rejoicing in the favour of a multitude of + leaders in the Church, including Mr. Gladstone, seemed an inexpugnable + fortress of the older thought. + </p> + <p> + But in 1889 appeared the book of essays entitled Lux Mundi, among whose + leading authors were men closely connected with Keble College and with the + movement which had created it. This work gave up entirely the tradition + that the narrative in Genesis is a historical record, and admitted that + all accounts in the Hebrew Scriptures of events before the time of Abraham + are mythical and legendary; it conceded that the books ascribed to Moses + and Joshua were made up mainly of three documents representing different + periods, and one of them the late period of the exile; that "there is a + considerable idealizing element in Old Testament history"; that "the books + of Chronicles show an idealizing of history" and "a reading back into past + records of a ritual development which is really later," and that prophecy + is not necessarily predictive—"prophetic inspiration being + consistent with erroneous anticipations." Again a shudder went through the + upholders of tradition in the Church, and here and there threats were + heard; but the Essays and Reviews fiasco and the Colenso catastrophe were + still in vivid remembrance. Good sense prevailed: Benson, Archbishop of + Canterbury, instead of prosecuting the authors, himself asked the famous + question, "May not the Holy Spirit make use of myth and legend?" and the + Government, not long afterward, promoted one of these authors to a + bishopric.(487) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (487) Of Pusey's extreme devotion to his view of the book of Daniel, +there is a curious evidence in a letter to Stanley in the second volume +of the latter's Life and Letters. For the views referred to in Lux +Mundi, see pp. 345-357; also, on the general subject, Bishop Ellicott's +Christus Comprobator. +</pre> + <p> + In the sister university the same tendency was seen. Robertson Smith, who + had been driven out of his high position in the Free Church of Scotland on + account of his work in scriptural research, was welcomed into a + professorship at Cambridge, and other men, no less loyal to the new + truths, were given places of controlling influence in shaping the thought + of the new generation. + </p> + <p> + Nor did the warfare against biblical science produce any different results + among the dissenters of England. In 1862 Samuel Davidson, a professor in + the Congregational College at Manchester, published his Introduction to + the Old Testament. Independently of the contemporary writers of Essays and + Reviews, he had arrived in a general way at conclusions much like theirs, + and he presented the newer view with fearless honesty, admitting that the + same research must be applied to these as to other Oriental sacred books, + and that such research establishes the fact that all alike contain + legendary and mythical elements. A storm was at once aroused; certain + denominational papers took up the matter, and Davidson was driven from his + professorial chair; but he laboured bravely on, and others followed to + take up his work, until the ideas which he had advocated were fully + considered. + </p> + <p> + So, too, in Scotland the work of Robertson Smith was continued even after + he had been driven into England; and, as votaries of the older thought + passed away, men of ideas akin to his were gradually elected into chairs + of biblical criticism and interpretation. Wellhausen's great work, which + Smith had introduced in English form, proved a power both in England and + Scotland, and the articles upon various books of Scripture and scriptural + subjects generally, in the ninth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, + having been prepared mainly by himself as editor or put into the hands of + others representing the recent critical research, this very important work + of reference, which had been in previous editions so timid, was now + arrayed on the side of the newer thought, insuring its due consideration + wherever the English language is spoken. + </p> + <p> + In France the same tendency was seen, though with striking variations from + the course of events in other countries—variations due to the very + different conditions under which biblical students in France were obliged + to work. Down to the middle of the nineteenth century the orthodoxy of + Bossuet, stiffly opposing the letter of Scripture to every step in the + advance of science, had only yielded in a very slight degree. But then + came an event ushering in a new epoch. At that time Jules Simon, afterward + so eminent as an author, academician, and statesman, was quietly + discharging the duties of a professorship, when there was brought him the + visiting card of a stranger bearing the name of "Ernest Renan, Student at + St. Sulpice." Admitted to M. Simon's library, Renan told his story. As a + theological student he had devoted himself most earnestly, even before he + entered the seminary, to the study of Hebrew and the Semitic languages, + and he was now obliged, during the lectures on biblical literature at St. + Sulpice, to hear the reverend professor make frequent comments, based on + the Vulgate, but absolutely disproved by Renan's own knowledge of Hebrew. + On Renan's questioning any interpretation of the lecturer, the latter was + wont to rejoin: "Monsieur, do you presume to deny the authority of the + Vulgate—the translation by St. Jerome, sanctioned by the Holy Ghost + and the Church? You will at once go into the chapel and say 'Hail Mary' + for an hour before the image of the Blessed Virgin." + </p> + <p> + "But," said Renan to Jules Simon, "this has now become very serious; it + happens nearly every day, and, MON DIEU! Monsieur, I can not spend ALL my + time in saying, Hail Mary, before the statue of the Virgin." The result + was a warm personal attachment between Simon and Renan; both were Bretons, + educated in the midst of the most orthodox influences, and both had + unwillingly broken away from them. + </p> + <p> + Renan was now emancipated, and pursued his studies with such effect that + he was made professor at the College de France. His Life of Jesus, and + other books showing the same spirit, brought a tempest upon him which + drove him from his professorship and brought great hardships upon him for + many years. But his genius carried the day, and, to the honour of the + French Republic, he was restored to the position from which the Empire had + driven him. From his pen finally appeared the Histoire du Peuple Israel, + in which scholarship broad, though at times inaccurate in minor details, + was supplemented by an exquisite acuteness and a poetic insight which far + more than made good any of those lesser errors which a German student + would have avoided. At his death, in October, 1892, this monumental work + had been finished. In clearness and beauty of style it has never been + approached by any other treatise on this or any kindred subject: it is a + work of genius; and its profound insight into all that is of importance in + the great subjects which he treated will doubtless cause it to hold a + permanent place in the literature not only of the Latin nations but of the + world. + </p> + <p> + An interesting light is thrown over the history of advancing thought at + the end of the nineteenth century by the fact that this most detested of + heresiarchs was summoned to receive the highest of academic honours at the + university which for ages had been regarded as a stronghold of + Presbyterian orthodoxy in Great Britain. + </p> + <p> + In France the anathemas lavished upon him by Church authorities during his + life, their denial to him of Christian burial, and their refusal to allow + him a grave in the place he most loved, only increased popular affection + for him during his last years and deepened the general mourning at his + death.(488) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (488) For a remarkably just summary of Renan's work, eminently judicial +and at the same time deeply appreciative, see the Rev. Dr. Pfleiderer, +professor at the University of Berlin, Development of Theology in +Germany, pp. 241, 242, note. The facts as to the early relations between +Renan and Jules Simon were told in 1878 by the latter to the present +writer at considerable length and with many interesting details not here +given. The writer was also present at the public funeral of the great +scholar, and can testify of his own knowledge to the deep and hearty +evidences of gratitude and respect then paid to Renan, not merely by +eminent orators and scholars, but by the people at large. As to the +refusal of the place of burial that Renan especially chose, see his own +Souvenirs, in which he laments the inevitable exclusion of his grave +from the site which he most loved. As to calumnies, one masterpiece, +very widely spread, through the zeal of clerical journals, was that +Renan received enormous sums from the Rothschilds for attacking +Christianity. +</pre> + <p> + In spite of all resistance, the desire for more light upon the sacred + books penetrated the older Church from every side. + </p> + <p> + In Germany, toward the close of the eighteenth century, Jahn, Catholic + professor at Vienna, had ventured, in an Introduction to Old Testament + Study, to class Job, Jonah, and Tobit below other canonical books, and had + only escaped serious difficulties by ample amends in a second edition. + </p> + <p> + Early in the nineteenth century, Herbst, Catholic professor at Tubingen, + had endeavoured in a similar Introduction to bring modern research to bear + on the older view; but the Church authorities took care to have all + passages really giving any new light skilfully and speedily edited out of + the book. + </p> + <p> + Later still, Movers, professor at Breslau, showed remarkable gifts for Old + Testament research, and much was expected of him; but his ecclesiastical + superiors quietly prevented his publishing any extended work. + </p> + <p> + During the latter half of the nineteenth century much the same pressure + has continued in Catholic Germany. Strong scholars have very generally + been drawn into the position of "apologists" or "reconcilers," and, when + found intractable, they have been driven out of the Church. + </p> + <p> + The same general policy had been evident in France and Italy, but toward + the last decade of the century it was seen by the more clear-sighted + supporters of the older Church in those countries that the multifarious + "refutations" and explosive attacks upon Renan and his teachings had + accomplished nothing; that even special services of atonement for his sin, + like the famous "Triduo" at Florence, only drew a few women, and provoked + ridicule among the public at large; that throwing him out of his + professorship and calumniating him had but increased his influence; and + that his brilliant intuitions, added to the careful researches of German + and English scholars, had brought the thinking world beyond the reach of + the old methods of hiding troublesome truths and crushing persistent + truth-tellers. + </p> + <p> + Therefore it was that about 1890 a body of earnest Roman Catholic scholars + began very cautiously to examine and explain the biblical text in the + light of those results of the newer research which could no longer be + gainsaid. + </p> + <p> + Among these men were, in Italy, Canon Bartolo, Canon Berta, and Father + Savi, and in France Monseigneur d'Hulst, the Abbe Loisy, professor at the + Roman Catholic University at Paris, and, most eminent of all, Professor + Lenormant, of the French Institute, whose researches into biblical and + other ancient history and literature had won him distinction throughout + the world. These men, while standing up manfully for the Church, were + obliged to allow that some of the conclusions of modern biblical criticism + were well founded. The result came rapidly. The treatise of Bartolo and + the great work of Lenormant were placed on the Index; Canon Berta was + overwhelmed with reproaches and virtually silenced; the Abbe Loisy was + first deprived of his professorship, and then ignominiously expelled from + the university; Monseigneur d'Hulst was summoned to Rome, and has since + kept silence.(489) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (489) For the frustration of attempts to admit light into scriptural +studies in Roman Catholic Germany, see Bleek, Old Testament, London, +1882, vol. i, pp. 19, 20. For the general statement regarding recent +suppression of modern biblical study in France and Italy, see an article +by a Roman Catholic author in the Contemporary Review, September, 1894, +p. 365. For the papal condemnations of Lenormant and Bartolo, see the +Index Librorum Prohibitorum Sanctissimi Domini Nostri, Leonis XIII, +P.M., etc., Rome, 1891; Appendices, July, 1890, and May, 1891. The +ghastly part of the record, as stated in this edition of the Index, is +that both these great scholars were forced to abjure their "errors" and +to acquiesce in the condemnation—Lenorment doing this on his deathbed. +</pre> + <p> + The matter was evidently thought serious in the higher regions of the + Church, for in November, 1893, appeared an encyclical letter by the + reigning Pope, Leo XIII, on The Study of Sacred Scripture. + </p> + <p> + Much was expected from it, for, since Benedict XIV in the last century, + there had sat on the papal throne no Pope intellectually so competent to + discuss the whole subject. While, then, those devoted to the older beliefs + trusted that the papal thunderbolts would crush the whole brood of + biblical critics, votaries of the newer thought ventured to hope that the + encyclical might, in the language of one of them, prove "a stupendous + bridge spanning the broad abyss that now divides alleged orthodoxy from + established science."(490) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (490) For this statement, see an article in the Contemporary Review, +April, 1894, p. 576. +</pre> + <p> + Both these expectations were disappointed; and yet, on the whole, it is a + question whether the world at large may not congratulate itself upon this + papal utterance. The document, if not apostolic, won credit as + "statesmanlike." It took pains, of course, to insist that there can be no + error of any sort in the sacred books; it even defended those parts which + Protestants count apocryphal as thoroughly as the remainder of Scripture, + and declared that the book of Tobit was not compiled of man, but written + by God. His Holiness naturally condemned the higher criticism, but he + dwelt at the same time on the necessity of the most thorough study of the + sacred Scriptures, and especially on the importance of adjusting + scriptural statements to scientific facts. This utterance was admirably + oracular, being susceptible of cogent quotation by both sides: nothing + could be in better form from an orthodox point of view; but, with that + statesmanlike forecast which the present Pope has shown more than once in + steering the bark of St. Peter over the troubled waves of the nineteenth + century, he so far abstained from condemning any of the greater results of + modern critical study that the main English defender of the encyclical, + the Jesuit Father Clarke, did not hesitate publicly to admit a multitude + of such results—results, indeed, which would shock not only Italian + and Spanish Catholics, but many English and American Protestants. + According to this interpreter, the Pope had no thought of denying the + variety of documents in the Pentateuch, or the plurality of sources of the + books of Samuel, or the twofold authorship of Isaiah, or that all after + the ninth verse of the last chapter of St. Mark's Gospel is spurious; and, + as regards the whole encyclical, the distinguished Jesuit dwelt + significantly on the power of the papacy at any time to define out of + existence any previous decisions which may be found inconvenient. More + than that, Father Clarke himself, while standing as the champion of the + most thorough orthodoxy, acknowledged that, in the Old Testament, "numbers + must be expected to be used Orientally," and that "all these seventies and + forties, as, for example, when Absalom is said to have rebelled against + David for forty years, can not possibly be meant numerically"; and, what + must have given a fearful shock to some Protestant believers in plenary + inspiration, he, while advocating it as a dutiful Son of the Church, wove + over it an exquisite web with the declaration that "there is a human + element in the Bible pre-calculated for by the Divine."(491) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (491) For these admissions of Father Clarke, see his article The Papal +Encyclical on the Bible, in the Contemporary Review for July, 1894. +</pre> + <p> + Considering the difficulties in the case, the world has reason to be + grateful to Pope Leo and Father Clarke for these utterances, which + perhaps, after all, may prove a better bridge between the old and the new + than could have been framed by engineers more learned but less astute. + Evidently Pope Leo XIII is neither a Paul V nor an Urban VIII, and is too + wise to bring the Church into a position from which it can only be + extricated by such ludicrous subterfuges as those by which it was dragged + out of the Galileo scandal, or by such a tortuous policy as that by which + it writhed out of the old doctrine regarding the taking of interest for + money. + </p> + <p> + In spite, then, of the attempted crushing out of Bartolo and Berta and + Savi and Lenormant and Loisy, during this very epoch in which the Pope + issued this encyclical, there is every reason to hope that the path has + been paved over which the Church may gracefully recede from the old system + of interpretation and quietly accept and appropriate the main results of + the higher criticism. Certainly she has never had a better opportunity to + play at the game of "beggar my neighbour" and to drive the older + Protestant orthodoxy into bankruptcy. + </p> + <p> + In America the same struggle between the old ideas and the new went on. In + the middle years of the century the first adequate effort in behalf of the + newer conception of the sacred books was made by Theodore Parker at + Boston. A thinker brave and of the widest range,—a scholar + indefatigable and of the deepest sympathies with humanity,—a man + called by one of the most eminent scholars in the English Church "a + religious Titan," and by a distinguished French theologian "a prophet," he + had struggled on from the divinity school until at that time he was one of + the foremost biblical scholars, and preacher to the largest regular + congregation on the American continent. The great hall in Boston could + seat four thousand people, and at his regular discourses every part of it + was filled. In addition to his pastoral work he wielded a vast influence + as a platform speaker, especially in opposition to the extension of + slavery into the Territories of the United States, and as a lecturer on a + wide range of vital topics; and among those whom he most profoundly + influenced, both politically and religiously, was Abraham Lincoln. During + each year at that period he was heard discussing the most important + religious and political questions in all the greater Northern cities; but + his most lasting work was in throwing light upon our sacred Scriptures, + and in this he was one of the forerunners of the movement now going on not + only in the United States but throughout Christendom. Even before he was + fairly out of college his translation of De Wette's Introduction to the + Old Testament made an impression on many thoughtful men; his sermon in + 1841 on The Transient and Permanent in Christianity marked the beginning + of his great individual career; his speeches, his lectures, and especially + his Discourse on Matters pertaining to Religion, greatly extended his + influence. His was a deeply devotional nature, and his public prayers + exercised by their touching beauty a very strong religious influence upon + his audiences. He had his reward. Beautiful and noble as were his life and + his life-work, he was widely abhorred. On one occasion of public worship + in one of the more orthodox churches, news having been received that he + was dangerously ill, a prayer was openly made by one of the zealous + brethren present that this arch-enemy might be removed from earth. He was + even driven out from the Unitarian body. But he was none the less + steadfast and bold, and the great mass of men and women who thronged his + audience room at Boston and his lecture rooms in other cities spread his + ideas. His fate was pathetic. Full of faith and hope, but broken + prematurely by his labours, he retired to Italy, and died there at the + darkest period in the history of the United States—when slavery in + the state and the older orthodoxy in the Church seemed absolutely and + forever triumphant. The death of Moses within sight of the promised land + seems the only parallel to the death of Parker less than six months before + the publication of Essays and Reviews and the election of Abraham Lincoln + to the presidency, of the United States.(492) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (492) For the appellation "religious Titan" applied to Theodore Parker, +see a letter of Jowett, Master of Balliol, to Frances Power Cobbe, in +her Autobiography, vol. 1, p. 357, and for Reville's statement, ibid., +p. 9. For a pathetic account of Parker's last hours at Florence, ibid., +vol. i, pp. 10, 11. As to the influence of Theodore Parker on Lincoln, +see Rhodes's History of the United States, as above, vol. ii, p. 312. +For the statement regarding Parker's audiences and his power over them, +the present writer trusts to his own memory. +</pre> + <p> + But here it must be noted that Parker's effort was powerfully aided by the + conscientious utterances of some of his foremost opponents. Nothing during + the American struggle against the slave system did more to wean religious + and God-fearing men and women from the old interpretation of Scripture + than the use of it to justify slavery. Typical among examples of this use + were the arguments of Hopkins, Bishop of Vermont, a man whose noble + character and beautiful culture gave him very wide influence in all + branches of the American Protestant Church. While avowing his personal + dislike to slavery, he demonstrated that the Bible sanctioned it. Other + theologians, Catholic and Protestant, took the same ground; and then came + that tremendous rejoinder which echoed from heart to heart throughout the + Northern States: "The Bible sanctions slavery? So much the worse for the + Bible." Then was fulfilled that old saying of Bishop Ulrich of Augsburg: + "Press not the breasts of Holy Writ too hard, lest they yield blood rather + than milk."(493) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (493) There is a curious reference to Bishop Hopkins's ideas on slavery +in Archbishop Tait's Life and Letters. For a succinct statement of the +biblical proslavery argument referred to, see Rhodes, as above, vol. i, +pp. 370 et seq. +</pre> + <p> + Yet throughout Christendom a change in the mode of interpreting Scripture, + though absolutely necessary if its proper authority was to be maintained, + still seemed almost hopeless. Even after the foremost scholars had taken + ground in favour of it, and the most conservative of those whose opinions + were entitled to weight had made concessions showing the old ground to be + untenable, there was fanatical opposition to any change. The Syllabus of + Errors put forth by Pius IX in 1864, as well as certain other documents + issued from the Vatican, had increased the difficulties of this needed + transition; and, while the more able-minded Roman Catholic scholars + skilfully explained away the obstacles thus created, others published + works insisting upon the most extreme views as to the verbal inspiration + of the sacred books. In the Church of England various influential men took + the same view. Dr. Baylee, Principal of St. Aidan's College, declared that + in Scripture "every scientific statement is infallibly accurate; all its + histories and narrations of every kind are without any inaccuracy. Its + words and phrases have a grammatical and philological accuracy, such as is + possessed by no human composition." In 1861 Dean Burgon preached in Christ + Church Cathedral, Oxford, as follows: "No, sirs, the Bible is the very + utterance of the Eternal: as much God's own word as if high heaven were + open and we heard God speaking to us with human voice. Every book is + inspired alike, and is inspired entirely. Inspiration is not a difference + of degree, but of kind. The Bible is filled to overflowing with the Holy + Spirit of God; the books of it and the words of it and the very letters of + it." + </p> + <p> + In 1865 Canon MacNeile declared in Exeter Hall that "we must either + receive the verbal inspiration of the Old Testament or deny the veracity, + the insight, the integrity of our Lord Jesus Christ as a teacher of divine + truth." + </p> + <p> + As late as 1889 one of the two most eloquent pulpit orators in the Church + of England, Canon Liddon, preaching at St. Paul's Cathedral, used in his + fervour the same dangerous argument: that the authority of Christ himself, + and therefore of Christianity, must rest on the old view of the Old + Testament; that, since the founder of Christianity, in divinely recorded + utterances, alluded to the transformation of Lot's wife into a pillar of + salt, to Noah's ark and the Flood, and to the sojourn of Jonah in the + whale, the biblical account of these must be accepted as historical, or + that Christianity must be given up altogether. + </p> + <p> + In the light of what was rapidly becoming known regarding the Chaldean and + other sources of the accounts given in Genesis, no argument could be more + fraught with peril to the interest which the gifted preacher sought to + serve. + </p> + <p> + In France and Germany many similar utterances in opposition to the newer + biblical studies were heard; and from America, especially from the college + at Princeton, came resounding echoes. As an example of many may be quoted + the statement by the eminent Dr. Hodge that the books of Scripture "are, + one and all, in thought and verbal expression, in substance, and in form, + wholly the work of God, conveying with absolute accuracy and divine + authority all that God meant to convey without human additions and + admixtures"; and that "infallibility and authority attach as much to the + verbal expression in which the revelation is made as to the matter of the + revelation itself." + </p> + <p> + But the newer thought moved steadily on. As already in Protestant Europe, + so now in the Protestant churches of America, it took strong hold on the + foremost minds in many of the churches known as orthodox: Toy, Briggs, + Francis Brown, Evans, Preserved Smith, Moore, Haupt, Harper, Peters, and + Bacon developed it, and, though most of them were opposed bitterly by + synods, councils, and other authorities of their respective churches, they + were manfully supported by the more intellectual clergy and laity. The + greater universities of the country ranged themselves on the side of these + men; persecution but intrenched them more firmly in the hearts of all + intelligent well-wishers of Christianity. The triumphs won by their + opponents in assemblies, synods, conventions, and conferences were really + victories for the nominally defeated, since they revealed to the world the + fact that in each of these bodies the strong and fruitful thought of the + Church, the thought which alone can have any hold on the future, was with + the new race of thinkers; no theological triumphs more surely fatal to the + victors have been won since the Vatican defeated Copernicus and Galileo. + </p> + <p> + And here reference must be made to a series of events which, in the second + half of the nineteenth century, have contributed most powerful aid to the + new school of biblical research. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0088" id="link2H_4_0088"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + V. VICTORY OF THE SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY METHODS. + </h2> + <p> + While this struggle for the new truth was going on in various fields, aid + appeared from a quarter whence it was least expected. + </p> + <p> + The great discoveries by Botta and Layard in Assyria were supplemented by + the researches of Rawlinson, George Smith, Oppert, Sayce, Sarzec, Pinches, + and others, and thus it was revealed more clearly than ever before that as + far back as the time assigned in Genesis to the creation a great + civilization was flourishing in Mesopotamia; that long ages, probably two + thousand years, before the scriptural date assigned to the migration of + Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees, this Chaldean civilization had bloomed + forth in art, science, and literature; that the ancient inscriptions + recovered from the sites of this and kindred civilizations presented the + Hebrew sacred myths and legends in earlier forms—forms long + antedating those given in the Hebrew Scriptures; and that the accounts of + the Creation, the Tree of Life in Eden, the institution and even the name + of the Sabbath, the Deluge, the Tower of Babel, and much else in the + Pentateuch, were simply an evolution out of earlier Chaldean myths and + legends. So perfect was the proof of this that the most eminent scholars + in the foremost seats of Christian learning were obliged to acknowledge + it.(494) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (494) As to the revelations of the vast antiquity of Chaldean +civilization, and especially regarding the Nabonidos inscription, see +Records of the Past, vol. i, new series, first article, and especially +pp. 5, 6, where a translation of that inscription is given; also Hommel, +Geschichte Babyloniens und Assyriens, introduction, in which, on page +12, an engraving of the Sargon cylinder is given; also, on the general +subject, especially pp. 116 et seq., 309 et seq.; also Meyer, +Geschichte des Alterthums, pp. 161-163; also Maspero and Sayce, Dawn of +Civilization, p. 555 and note. +</pre> + <p> + For the earlier Chaldean forms of the Hebrew Creation accounts, Tree of + Life in Eden, Hebrew Sabbath, both the institution and the name, and + various other points of similar interest, see George Smith, Chaldean + Account of Genesis, throughout the work, especially p. 308 and chaps. xvi, + xvii; also Jensen, Die Kosmologie der Babylonier; also Schrader, The + Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Testament; also Lenormant, Origines de + l'Histoire; also Sayce, The Assyrian Story of Creation, in Records of the + Past, new series, vol. i. For a general statement as to earlier sources of + much in the Hebrew sacred origins, see Huxley, Essays on Controverted + Questions, English edition, p. 525. + </p> + <p> + The more general conclusions which were thus given to biblical criticism + were all the more impressive from the fact that they had been revealed by + various groups of earnest Christian scholars working on different lines, + by different methods, and in various parts of the world. Very honourable + was the full and frank testimony to these results given in 1885 by the + Rev. Francis Brown, a professor in the Presbyterian Theological Seminary + at New York. In his admirable though brief book on Assyriology, starting + with the declaration that "it is a great pity to be afraid of facts," he + showed how Assyrian research testifies in many ways to the historical + value of the Bible record; but at the same time he freely allowed to + Chaldean history an antiquity fatal to the sacred chronology of the + Hebrews. He also cast aside a mass of doubtful apologetics, and dealt + frankly with the fact that very many of the early narratives in Genesis + belong to the common stock of ancient tradition, and, mentioning as an + example the cuneiform inscriptions which record a story of the Accadian + king Sargon—how "he was born in retirement, placed by his mother in + a basket of rushes, launched on a river, rescued and brought up by a + stranger, after which he became king"—he did not hesitate to remind + his readers that Sargon lived a thousand years and more before Moses; that + this story was told of him several hundred years before Moses was born; + and that it was told of various other important personages of antiquity. + The professor dealt just as honestly with the inscriptions which show + sundry statements in the book of Daniel to be unhistorical; candidly + making admissions which but a short time before would have filled + orthodoxy with horror. + </p> + <p> + A few years later came another testimony even more striking. Early in the + last decade of the nineteenth century it was noised abroad that the Rev. + Professor Sayce, of Oxford, the most eminent Assyriologist and + Egyptologist of Great Britain, was about to publish a work in which what + is known as the "higher criticism" was to be vigorously and probably + destructively dealt with in the light afforded by recent research among + the monuments of Assyria and Egypt. The book was looked for with eager + expectation by the supporters of the traditional view of Scripture; but, + when it appeared, the exultation of the traditionalists was speedily + changed to dismay. For Prof. Sayce, while showing some severity toward + sundry minor assumptions and assertions of biblical critics, confirmed all + their more important conclusions which properly fell within his province. + While his readers soon realized that these assumptions and assertions of + overzealous critics no more disproved the main results of biblical + criticism than the wild guesses of Kepler disproved the theory of + Copernicus, or the discoveries of Galileo, or even the great laws which + bear Kepler's own name, they found new mines sprung under some of the most + lofty fortresses of the old dogmatic theology. A few of the statements of + this champion of orthodoxy may be noted. He allowed that the week of seven + days and the Sabbath rest are of Babylonian origin; indeed, that the very + word "Sabbath" is Babylonian; that there are two narratives of Creation on + the Babylonian tablets, wonderfully like the two leading Hebrew narratives + in Genesis, and that the latter were undoubtedly drawn from the former; + that the "garden of Eden" and its mystical tree were known to the + inhabitants of Chaldea in pre-Semitic days; that the beliefs that woman + was created out of man, and that man by sin fell from a state of + innocence, are drawn from very ancient Chaldean-Babylonian texts; that + Assyriology confirms the belief that the book Genesis is a compilation; + that portions of it are by no means so old as the time of Moses; that the + expression in our sacred book, "The Lord smelled a sweet savour" at the + sacrifice made by Noah, is "identical with that of the Babylonian poet"; + that "it is impossible to believe that the language of the latter was not + known to the biblical writer" and that the story of Joseph and Potiphar's + wife was drawn in part from the old Egyptian tale of The Two Brothers. + Finally, after a multitude of other concessions, Prof. Sayce allowed that + the book of Jonah, so far from being the work of the prophet himself, can + not have been written until the Assyrian Empire was a thing of the past; + that the book of Daniel contains serious mistakes; that the so-called + historical chapters of that book so conflict with the monuments that the + author can not have been a contemporary of Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus; that + "the story of Belshazzar's fall is not historical"; that the Belshazzar + referred to in it as king, and as the son of Nehuchadnezzar, was not the + son of Nebuchadnezzar, and was never king; that "King Darius the Mede," + who plays so great a part in the story, never existed; that the book + associates persons and events really many years apart, and that it must + have been written at a period far later than the time assigned in it for + its own origin. + </p> + <p> + As to the book of Ezra, he tells us that we are confronted by a + chronological inconsistency which no amount of ingenuity can explain away. + He also acknowledges that the book of Esther "contains many exaggerations + and improbabilities, and is simply founded upon one of those same + historical tales of which the Persian chronicles seem to have been full." + Great was the dissatisfaction of the traditionalists with their expected + champion; well might they repeat the words of Balak to Balaam, "I called + thee to curse mine enemies, and, behold, thou hast altogether blessed + them."(495) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (495) For Prof. Brown's discussion, see his Assyriology, its Use and +Abuse in Old Testament Study, New York, 1885, passim. For Prof. Sayce's +views, see The Higher Criticism and the Monuments, third edition, +London, 1894, and especially his own curious anticipation, in the first +lines of the preface, that he must fail to satisfy either side. For the +declaration that the "higher critic" with all his offences is no worse +than the orthodox "apologist," see p. 21. For the important admission +that the same criterion must be applied in researches into our own +sacred books as into others, and even into the mediaeval chronicles, see +p. 26. For justification of critical scepticism regarding the history +given in the book of Daniel, see pp. 27, 28, also chap. ix. For very +full and explicit statements, with proofs, that the "Sabbath," both in +name and nature, was derived by the Hebrews from the Chaldeans, see pp. +74 et seq. For a very full and fair acknowledgment of the "Babylonian +element in Genesis," see chap. iii, including the statement regarding +the statement in our sacred book, "The Lord smelled a sweet savour," at +the sacrifice made by Noah, etc., on p. 119. For an excellent summary of +the work, see Dr. Driver's article in the Contemporary Review for March, +1894. For a pungent but well-deserved rebuke of Prof. Sayce's recent +attempts to propitiate pious subscribers to his archaeological fund, see +Prof. A. A. Bevan, in the Contemporary Review for December, 1895. For +the inscription on the Assyrian tablets relating in detail the exposure +of King Sargon in a basket of rushes, his rescue and rule, see George +Smith, Chaldean account of Genesis, Sayce's edition, London, 1880, pp. +319, 320. For the frequent recurrence of the Sargon and Moses legend +in ancient folklore, see Maspero and Sayce, Dawn of History, p. 598 and +note. For various other points of similar interest, see ibid., passim, +especially chaps. xvi and xvii; also Jensen, Die Kosmologie der +Babylonier, and Schrader, The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old +Testament; also Lenormant, Origines de l'Histoire. +</pre> + <p> + No less fruitful have been modern researches in Egypt. While, on one hand, + they have revealed a very considerable number of geographical and + archaeological facts proving the good faith of the narratives entering + into the books attributed to Moses, and have thus made our early sacred + literature all the more valuable, they have at the same time revealed the + limitations of the sacred authors and compilers. They have brought to + light facts utterly disproving the sacred Hebrew date of creation and the + main framework of the early biblical chronology; they have shown the + suggestive correspondence between the ten antediluvian patriarchs in + Genesis and the ten early dynasties of the Egyptian gods, and have placed + by the side of these the ten antediluvian kings of Chaldean tradition, the + ten heroes of Armenia, the ten primeval kings of Persian sacred tradition, + the ten "fathers" of Hindu sacred tradition, and multitudes of other tens, + throwing much light on the manner in which the sacred chronicles of + ancient nations were generally developed. + </p> + <p> + These scholars have also found that the legends of the plagues of Egypt + are in the main but natural exaggerations of what occurs every year; as, + for example, the changing of the water of the Nile into blood—evidently + suggested by the phenomena exhibited every summer, when, as various + eminent scholars, and, most recent of all, Maspero and Sayce, tell us, + "about the middle of July, in eight or ten days the river turns from + grayish blue to dark red, occasionally of so intense a colour as to look + like newly shed blood." These modern researches have also shown that some + of the most important features in the legends can not possibly be + reconciled with the records of the monuments; for example, that the + Pharaoh of the Exodus was certainly not overwhelmed in the Red Sea. As to + the supernatural features of the Hebrew relations with Egypt, even the + most devoted apologists have become discreetly silent. + </p> + <p> + Egyptologists have also translated for us the old Nile story of The Two + Brothers, and have shown, as we have already seen, that one of the most + striking parts of our sacred Joseph legend was drawn from it; they have + been obliged to admit that the story of the exposure of Moses in the + basket of rushes, his rescue, and his subsequent greatness, had been + previously told, long before Moses's time, not only of King Sargon, but of + various other great personages of the ancient world; they have published + plans of Egyptian temples and copies of the sculptures upon their walls, + revealing the earlier origin of some of the most striking features of the + worship and ceremonial claimed to have been revealed especially to the + Hebrews; they have found in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, and in various + inscriptions of the Nile temples and tombs, earlier sources of much in the + ethics so long claimed to have been revealed only to the chosen people in + the Book of the Covenant, in the ten commandments, and elsewhere; they + have given to the world copies of the Egyptian texts showing that the + theology of the Nile was one of various fruitful sources of later ideas, + statements, and practices regarding the brazen serpent, the golden calf, + trinities, miraculous conceptions, incarnations, resurrections, + ascensions, and the like, and that Egyptian sacro-scientific ideas + contributed to early Jewish and Christian sacred literature statements, + beliefs, and even phrases regarding the Creation, astronomy, geography, + magic, medicine, diabolical influences, with a multitude of other ideas, + which we also find coming into early Judaism in greater or less degree + from Chaldean and Persian sources. + </p> + <p> + But Egyptology, while thus aiding to sweep away the former conception of + our sacred books, has aided biblical criticism in making them far more + precious; for it has shown them to be a part of that living growth of + sacred literature whose roots are in all the great civilizations of the + past, and through whose trunk and branches are flowing the currents which + are to infuse a higher religious and ethical life into the civilizations + of the future.(496) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (496) For general statements of agreements and disagreements between +biblical accounts and the revelations of the Egyptian monuments, see +Sayce, The Higher Criticism and the Monuments, especially chap. iv. For +discrepancies between the Hebrew sacred accounts of Jewish relations +with Egypt and the revelations of modern Egyptian research, see Sharpe, +History of Egypt; Flinders, Patrie, History of Egypt; and especially +Maspero and Sayce, The Dawn of Civilization in Egypt and Chaldea, +London, published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, +1894. For the statement regarding the Nile, that about the middle of +July "in eight or ten days it turns from grayish blue to dark red, +occasionally of so intense a colour as to look like newly shed blood," +see Maspero and Sayce, as above, p. 23. For the relation of the Joseph +legend to the Tale of Two Brothers, see Sharpe and others cited. For +examples of exposure of various great personages of antiquity in their +childhood, see G. Smith, Chaldean Accounts of Genesis, Sayce's edition, +p. 320. For the relation of the Book of the Dead, etc., to Hebrew +ethics, see a striking passage in Huxley's essay on The Evolution of +Theology, also others cited in this chapter. As to trinities in Egypt +and Chaldea, see Maspero and Sayce, especially pp. 104-106, 175, and +659-663. For miraculous conception and birth of sons of Ra, ibid., pp. +388, 389. For ascension of Ra into heaven, ibid., pp. 167, 168; for +resurrections, see ibid., p. 695, also representations in Lepsius, +Prisse d'Avennes, et al.; and for striking resemblance between Egyptian +and Hebrew ritual and worship, and especially the ark, cherubim, ephod, +Urim and Thummim, and wave offerings, see the same, passim. For a very +full exhibition of the whole subject, see Renan, Histoire du Peuple +Israel, vol. i, chap. xi. For Egyptian and Chaldean ideas in astronomy, +out of which Hebrew ideas of "the firmament," "pillars of heaven," etc., +were developed, see text and engravings in Maspero and Sayce, pp. 17 +and 543. For creation of man out of clay by a divine being in Egypt, see +Maspero and Sayce, p. 154; for a similar idea in Chaldea, see ibid., +p. 545; and for the creation of the universe by a word, ibid., pp. 146, +147. For Egyptian and Chaldean ideas on magic and medicine, dread of +evil spirits, etc., anticipating those of the Hebrew Scriptures, see +Maspero and Sayce, as above, pp. 212-214, 217, 636; and for extension +of these to neighboring nations, pp. 782, 783. For visions and use of +dreams as oracles, ibid., p. 641 and elsewhere. See also, on these and +other resemblances, Lenormant, Origines de l'Histoire, vol. i, passim; +see also George Smith and Sayce, as above, chaps. xvi and xvii, for +resemblances especially striking, combining to show how simple was the +evolution of many Hebrew sacred legends and ideas out of those earlier +civilizations. For an especially interesting presentation of the reasons +why Egyptian ideas of immortality were not seized upon by the Jews, see +the Rev. Barham Zincke's work upon Egypt. For the sacrificial vessels, +temple rites, etc., see the bas-reliefs, figured by Lepsius, Prisse +d'Avennes, Mariette, Maspero, et. al. For a striking summary by a +brilliant scholar and divine of the Anglican Church, see Mahaffy, +Prolegomena to Anc. Hist., cited in Sunderland, The Bible, New York, +1893, p. 21, note. +</pre> + <p> + But while archaeologists thus influenced enlightened opinion, another body + of scholars rendered services of a different sort—the centre of + their enterprise being the University of Oxford. By their efforts was + presented to the English-speaking world a series of translations of the + sacred books of the East, which showed the relations of the more Eastern + sacred literature to our own, and proved that in the religions of the + world the ideas which have come as the greatest blessings to mankind are + not of sudden revelation or creation, but of slow evolution out of a + remote past. + </p> + <p> + The facts thus shown did not at first elicit much gratitude from + supporters of traditional theology, and perhaps few things brought more + obloquy on Renan, for a time, than his statement that "the influence of + Persia is the most powerful to which Israel was submitted." Whether this + was an overstatement or not, it was soon seen to contain much truth. Not + only was it made clear by study of the Zend Avesta that the Old and New + Testament ideas regarding Satanic and demoniacal modes of action were + largely due to Persian sources, but it was also shown that the idea of + immortality was mainly developed in the Hebrew mind during the close + relations of the Jews with the Persians. Nor was this all. In the Zend + Avesta were found in earlier form sundry myths and legends which, judging + from their frequent appearance in early religions, grow naturally about + the history of the adored teachers of our race. Typical among these was + the Temptation of Zoroaster. + </p> + <p> + It is a fact very significant and full of promise that the first large, + frank, and explicit revelation regarding this whole subject in form + available for the general thinking public was given to the + English-speaking world by an eminent Christian divine and scholar, the + Rev. Dr. Mills. Having already shown himself by his translations a most + competent authority on the subject, he in 1894 called attention, in a + review widely read, to "the now undoubted and long since suspected fact + that it pleased the Divine Power to reveal some of the important articles + of our Catholic creed first to the Zoroastrians, and through their + literature to the Jews and ourselves." Among these beliefs Dr. Mills + traced out very conclusively many Jewish doctrines regarding the + attributes of God, and all, virtually, regarding the attributes of Satan. + </p> + <p> + There, too, he found accounts of the Miraculous Conception, Virgin Birth, + and Temptation of Zoroaster, As to the last, Dr. Mills presented a series + of striking coincidences with our own later account. As to its main + features, he showed that there had been developed among the Persians, many + centuries before the Christian era, the legend of a vain effort of the + arch-demon, one seat of whose power was the summit of Mount Arezura, to + tempt Zoroaster to worship him,—of an argument between tempter and + tempted,—and of Zoroaster's refusal; and the doctor continued: "No + Persian subject in the streets of Jerusalem, soon after or long after the + Return, could have failed to know this striking myth." Dr. Mills then went + on to show that, among the Jews, "the doctrine of immortality was scarcely + mooted before the later Isaiah—that is, before the captivity—while + the Zoroastrian scriptures are one mass of spiritualism, referring all + results to the heavenly or to the infernal worlds." He concludes by saying + that, as regards the Old and New Testaments, "the humble, and to a certain + extent prior, religion of the Mazda worshippers was useful in giving point + and beauty to many loose conceptions among the Jewish religious teachers, + and in introducing many ideas which were entirely new, while as to the + doctrines of immortality and resurrection—the most important of all—it + positively determined belief."(498) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (498) For the passages in the Vendidad of special importance as regards +the Temptation myth, see Fargard, xix, 18, 20, 26, also 140, 147. Very +striking is the account of the Temptation in the Pelhavi version of the +Vendidad. The devil is represented as saying to Zaratusht (Zoroaster): +"I had the worship of thy ancestors; do thou also worship me." I am +indebted to Prof. E. P. Evans, formerly of the University of Michigan, +but now of Munich, for a translation of the original text from Spiegel's +edition. For a good account, see also Haug, Essays on the Sacred +Language, etc., of the Parsees, edited by West, London, 1884, pp. 252 +et seq.; see also Mills's and Darmesteter's work in Sacred Books of the +East. For Dr. Mills's article referred to, see his Zoroaster and the +Bible, in The Nineteenth Century, January, 1894. For the citation from +Renan, see his Histoire du Peuple Israel, tome xiv, chap. iv; see also, +for Persian ideas of heaven, hell and resurrection, Haug, as above, p. +310 et seq. For an interesting resume of Zoroastrianism, see Laing, A +Modern Zoroastrian, chap. xii, London, eighth edition, 1893. For +the Buddhist version of the judgment of Solomon, etc., see Fausboll, +Buddhist Birth Stories, translated by Rhys Davids, London, 1880, vol. 1, +p. 14 and following. For very full statements regarding the influence of +Persian ideas upon the Jews during the captivity, see Kahut, Ueber +die judische Angelologie und Daemonologie in ihren Abhangigkeit vom +Parsismus, Leipzig, 1866. +</pre> + <p> + Even more extensive were the revelations made by scientific criticism + applied to the sacred literature of southern and eastern Asia. The + resemblances of sundry fundamental narratives and ideas in our own sacred + books with those of Buddhism were especially suggestive. + </p> + <p> + Here, too, had been a long preparatory history. The discoveries in + Sanscrit philology made in the latter half of the eighteenth century and + the first half of the nineteenth, by Sir William Jones, Carey, Wilkins, + Foster, Colebrooke, and others, had met at first with some opposition from + theologians. The declaration by Dugald Stewart that the discovery of + Sanscrit was fraudulent, and its vocabulary and grammar patched together + out of Greek and Latin, showed the feeling of the older race of biblical + students. + </p> + <p> + But researches went on. Bopp, Burnouf, Lassen, Weber, Whitney, Max Muller, + and others continued the work during the nineteenth century. More and more + evident became the sources from which many ideas and narratives in our own + sacred books had been developed. Studies in the sacred books of + Brahmanism, and in the institutions of Buddhism, the most widespread of + all religions, its devotees outnumbering those of all branches of the + Christian Church together, proved especially fruitful in facts relating to + general sacred literature and early European religious ideas. + </p> + <p> + Noteworthy in the progress of this knowledge was the work of Fathers Huc + and Gabet. In 1839 the former of these, a French Lazarist priest, set out + on a mission to China. Having prepared himself at Macao by eighteen months + of hard study, and having arrayed himself like a native, even to the + wearing of the queue and the staining of his skin, he visited Peking and + penetrated Mongolia. Five years later, taking Gabet with him, both + disguised as Lamas, he began his long and toilsome journey to the chief + seats of Buddhism in Thibet, and, after two years of fearful dangers and + sufferings, accomplished it. Driven out finally by the Chinese, Huc + returned to Europe in 1852, having made one of the most heroic, + self-denying, and, as it turned out, one of the most valuable efforts in + all the noble annals of Christian missions. His accounts of these + journevs, written in a style simple, clear, and interesting, at once + attracted attention throughout the world. But far more important than any + services he had rendered to the Church he served was the influence of his + book upon the general opinions of thinking men; for he completed a series + of revelations made by earlier, less gifted, and less devoted travellers, + and brought to the notice of the world the amazing similarity of the + ideas, institutions, observances, ceremonies, and ritual, and even the + ecclesiastical costumes of the Buddhists to those of his own Church. + </p> + <p> + Buddhism was thus shown with its hierarchy, in which the Grand Lama, an + infallible representative of the Most High, is surrounded by its minor + Lamas, much like cardinals; with its bishops wearing mitres, its celibate + priests with shaven crown, cope, dalmatic, and censer; its cathedrals with + clergy gathered in the choir; its vast monasteries filled with monks and + nuns vowed to poverty, chastity, and obedience; its church arrangements, + with shrines of saints and angels; its use of images, pictures, and + illuminated missals; its service, with a striking general resemblance to + the Mass; antiphonal choirs; intoning of prayers; recital of creeds; + repetition of litanies; processions; mystic rites and incense; the + offering and adoration of bread upon an altar lighted by candles; the + drinking from a chalice by the priest; prayers and offerings for the dead; + benediction with outstretched hands; fasts, confessions, and doctrine of + purgatory—all this and more was now clearly revealed. The good + father was evidently staggered by these amazing facts; but his robust + faith soon gave him an explanation: he suggested that Satan, in + anticipation of Christianity, had revealed to Buddhism this divinely + constituted order of things. This naive explanation did not commend itself + to his superiors in the Roman Church. In the days of St. Augustine or of + St. Thomas Aquinas it would doubtless have been received much more kindly; + but in the days of Cardinal Antonelli this was hardly to be expected: the + Roman authorities, seeing the danger of such plain revelations in the + nineteenth century, even when coupled with such devout explanations, put + the book under the ban, though not before it had been spread throughout + the world in various translations. Father Huc was sent on no more + missions. + </p> + <p> + Yet there came even more significant discoveries, especially bearing upon + the claims of that great branch of the Church which supposes itself to + possess a divine safeguard against error in belief. For now was brought to + light by literary research the irrefragable evidence that the great Buddha—Sakya + Muni himself—had been canonized and enrolled among the Christian + saints whose intercession may be invoked, and in whose honour images, + altars, and chapels may be erected; and this, not only by the usage of the + medieval Church, Greek and Roman, but by the special and infallible + sanction of a long series of popes, from the end of the sixteenth century + to the end of the nineteenth—a sanction granted under one of the + most curious errors in human history. The story enables us to understand + the way in which many of the beliefs of Christendom have been developed, + especially how they have been influenced from the seats of older + religions; and it throws much light into the character and exercise of + papal infallibility. + </p> + <p> + Early in the seventh century there was composed, as is now believed, at + the Convent of St. Saba near Jerusalem, a pious romance entitled Barlaam + and Josaphat—the latter personage, the hero of the story, being + represented as a Hindu prince converted to Christianity by the former. + </p> + <p> + This story, having been attributed to St. John of Damascus in the + following century became amazingly popular, and was soon accepted as true: + it was translated from the Greek original not only into Latin, Hebrew, + Arabic, and Ethiopic, but into every important European language, + including even Polish, Bohemian, and Icelandic. Thence it came into the + pious historical encyclopaedia of Vincent of Beauvais, and, most important + of all, into the Lives of the Saints. + </p> + <p> + Hence the name of its pious hero found its way into the list of saints + whose intercession is to be prayed for, and it passed without challenge + until about 1590, when, the general subject of canonization having been + brought up at Rome, Pope Sixtus V, by virtue of his infallibility and + immunity against error in everything relating to faith and morals, + sanctioned a revised list of saints, authorizing and directing it to be + accepted by the Church; and among those on whom he thus forever infallibly + set the seal of Heaven was included "The Holy Saint Josaphat of India, + whose wonderful acts St. John of Damascus has related." The 27th of + November was appointed as the day set apart in honour of this saint, and + the decree, having been enforced by successive popes for over two hundred + and fifty years, was again officially approved by Pius IX in 1873. This + decree was duly accepted as infallible, and in one of the largest cities + of Italy may to-day be seen a Christian church dedicated to this saint. On + its front are the initials of his Italianized name; over its main entrance + is the inscription "Divo Josafat"; and within it is an altar dedicated to + the saint—above this being a pedestal bearing his name and + supporting a large statue which represents him as a youthful prince + wearing a crown and contemplating a crucifix. + </p> + <p> + Moreover, relics of this saint were found; bones alleged to be parts of + his skeleton, having been presented by a Doge of Venice to a King of + Portugal, are now treasured at Antwerp. + </p> + <p> + But even as early as the sixteenth century a pregnant fact regarding this + whole legend was noted: for the Portuguese historian Diego Conto showed + that it was identical with the legend of Buddha. Fortunately for the + historian, his faith was so robust that he saw in this resemblance only a + trick of Satan; the life of Buddha being, in his opinion, merely a + diabolic counterfeit of the life of Josaphat centuries before the latter + was lived or written—just as good Abbe Huc saw in the ceremonies of + Buddhism a similar anticipatory counterfeit of Christian ritual. + </p> + <p> + There the whole matter virtually rested for about three hundred years—various + scholars calling attention to the legend as a curiosity, but none really + showing its true bearings—until, in 1859, Laboulaye in France, + Liebrecht in Germany, and others following them, demonstrated that this + Christian work was drawn almost literally from an early biography of + Buddha, being conformed to it in the most minute details, not only of + events but of phraseology; the only important changes being that, at the + end of the various experiences showing the wretchedness of the world, + identical with those ascribed in the original to the young Prince Buddha, + the hero, instead of becoming a hermit, becomes a Christian, and that for + the appellation of Buddha—"Bodisat"—is substituted the more + scriptural name Josaphat. + </p> + <p> + Thus it was that, by virtue of the infallibility vouchsafed to the papacy + in matters of faith and morals, Buddha became a Christian saint. + </p> + <p> + Yet these were by no means the most pregnant revelations. As the Buddhist + scriptures were more fully examined, there were disclosed interesting + anticipations of statements in later sacred books. The miraculous + conception of Buddha and his virgin birth, like that of Horus in Egypt and + of Krishna in India; the previous annunciation to his mother Maja; his + birth during a journey by her; the star appearing in the east, and the + angels chanting in the heavens at his birth; his temptation—all + these and a multitude of other statements were full of suggestions to + larger thought regarding the development of sacred literature in general. + Even the eminent Roman Catholic missionary Bishop Bigandet was obliged to + confess, in his scholarly life of Buddha, these striking similarities + between the Buddhist scriptures and those which it was his mission to + expound, though by this honest statement his own further promotion was + rendered impossible. Fausboll also found the story of the judgment of + Solomon imbedded in Buddhist folklore; and Sir Edwin Arnold, by his poem, + The Light of Asia, spread far and wide a knowledge of the anticipation in + Buddhism of some ideas which down to a recent period were considered + distinctively Christian. Imperfect as the revelations thus made of an + evolution of religious beliefs, institutions, and literature still are, + they have not been without an important bearing upon the newer conception + of our own sacred books: more and more manifest has become the + interdependence of all human development; more and more clear the truth + that Christianity, as a great fact in man's history, is not dependent for + its life upon any parasitic growths of myth and legend, no matter how + beautiful they may be.(498) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (498) For Huc and Gabet, see Souvenirs d'un Voyage dans la Tartarie, le +Thibet, et la Chine, English translation by Hazlitt, London, 1851; also +supplementary work by Huc. For Bishop Bigandet, see his Life of Buddha, +passim. As for authority for the fact that his book was condemned +at Rome and his own promotion prevented, the present writer has the +bishop's own statement. For notices of similarities between Buddhist +and Christian institutions, rituals, etc., see Rhys David's Buddhism, +London, 1894, passim; also Lillie, Buddhism and Christianity, especially +chaps. ii and xi. It is somewhat difficult to understand how a scholar +so eminent as Mr. Rhys Davids should have allowed the Society for the +Promotion of Christian Knowledge, which published his book, to eliminate +all the interesting details regarding the birth of Buddha, and to give +so fully everything that seemed to tell against the Roman Catholic +Church; cf. p. 27 with p. 246 et seq. For more thorough presentation of +the development of features in Buddhism and Brahmanism which anticipate +those of Christianity, see Schroeder, Indiens Literatur und Cultur, +Leipsic, 1887, especially Vorlesung XXVIII and following. For full +details of the canonization of Buddha under the name of St. Josaphat, +see Fausboll, Buddhist Birth Stories, translated by Rhys Davids, London, +1880, pp. xxxvi and following; also Prof. Max Muller in the Contemporary +Review for July, 1890; also the article Barlaam and Josaphat, in the +ninth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. For the more recent +and full accounts, correcting some minor details in the foregoing +authorities, see Kuhn, Barlaam und Joasaph, Munich, 1893, especially +pages 82, 83. For a very thorough discussion of the whole subject, +see Zotenberg, Notice sur le livre de Barlaam et Joasaph, Paris, 1886; +especially for arguments fixing date of the work, see parts i to +iii; also Gaston Paris in the Revue de Paris for June, 1895. For the +transliteration between the appellation of Buddha and the name of the +saint, see Fausboll and Sayce, as above, p. xxxvii, note; and for the +multitude of translations of the work ascribed to St. John of Damascus, +see Table III, on p. xcv. The reader who is curious to trace up a +multitude of the myths and legends of early Hebrew and Christian +mythology to their more eastern and southern sources can do so in Bible +Myths, New York, 1883. The present writer gladly avails himself of the +opportunity to thank the learned Director of the National Library at +Palermo, Monsignor Marzo, for his kindness in showing him the very +interesting church of San Giosafat in that city; and to the custodians +of the church for their readiness to allow photographs of the saint to +be taken. The writer's visit was made in April, 1895, and copies of the +photographs may be seen in the library of Cornell University. As to +the more rare editions of Barlaam and Josaphat, a copy of the Icelandic +translation is to be seen in the remarkable collection of Prof. Willard +Fiske, at Florence. As to the influence of these translations, it may +be noted that when young John Kuncewicz, afterward a Polish archbishop, +became a monk, he took the name of the sainted Prince Josafat; and, +having fallen a victim to one of the innumerable murderous affrays of +the seventeenth century between different sorts of fanatics—Greek, +Catholic, and Protestant—in Poland, he also was finally canonized under +that name, evidently as a means of annoying the Russian Government. (See +Contieri, Vita di S. Giosafat, Arcivesco e Martira Rutena, Roma, 1867.) +</pre> + <p> + No less important was the closer research into the New Testament during + the latter part of the nineteenth century. To go into the subject in + detail would be beyond the scope of this work, but a few of the main + truths which it brought before the world may be here summarized.(499) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (499) For a brief but thorough statement of the work of Strauss, +Baur, and the earlier cruder efforts in New Testament exegesis, see +Pfleiderer, as already cited, book ii, chap. i; and for the later work +on Supernatural Religion and Lightfoot's answer, ibid., book iv. chap. +ii. +</pre> + <p> + By the new race of Christian scholars it has been clearly shown that the + first three Gospels, which, down to the close of the last century, were so + constantly declared to be three independent testimonies agreeing as to the + events recorded, are neither independent of each other nor in that sort of + agreement which was formerly asserted. All biblical scholars of any + standing, even the most conservative, have come to admit that all three + took their rise in the same original sources, growing by the accretions + sure to come as time went on—accretions sometimes useful and often + beautiful, but in no inconsiderable degree ideas and even narratives + inherited from older religions: it is also fully acknowledged that to this + growth process are due certain contradictions which can not otherwise be + explained. As to the fourth Gospel, exquisitely beautiful as large + portions of it are, there has been growing steadily and irresistibly the + conviction, even among the most devout scholars, that it has no right to + the name, and does not really give the ideas of St. John, but that it + represents a mixture of Greek philosophy with Jewish theology, and that + its final form, which one of the most eminent among recent Christian + scholars has characterized as "an unhistorical product of abstract + reflection," is mainly due to some gifted representative or + representatives of the Alexandrian school. Bitter as the resistance to + this view has been, it has during the last years of the nineteenth century + won its way more and more to acknowledgment. A careful examination made in + 1893 by a competent Christian scholar showed facts which are best given in + his own words, as follows: "In the period of thirty years ending in 1860, + of the fifty great authorities in this line, FOUR TO ONE were in favour of + the Johannine authorship. Of those who in that period had advocated this + traditional position, one quarter—and certainly the very greatest—finally + changed their position to the side of a late date and non-Johannine + authorship." + </p> + <p> + Of those who have come into this field of scholarship since about 1860, + some forty men of the first class, two thirds reject the traditional + theory wholly or very largely. Of those who have contributed important + articles to the discussion from about 1880 to 1890, about TWO TO ONE + reject the Johannine authorship of the Gospel in its present shape—that + is to say, while forty years ago great scholars were FOUR TO ONE IN FAVOUR + OF, they are now TWO TO ONE AGAINST, the claim that the apostle John wrote + this Gospel as we have it. Again, one half of those on the conservative + side to-day—scholars like Weiss, Beyschlag, Sanday, and Reynolds—admit + the existence of a dogmatic intent and an ideal element in this Gospel, so + that we do not have Jesus's thought in his exact words, but only in + substance."(500) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (500) For the citations given regarding the development of thought in +relation to the fourth gospel, see Crooker, The New Bible and its Uses, +Boston, 1893, pp. 29, 30. For the characterization of St. John's Gospel +above referred to, see Robertson Smith in the Encyc. Brit., 9th edit., +art. Bible, p. 642. For a very careful and candid summary of the reasons +which are gradually leading the more eminent among the newer scholars to +give up the Johannine authorship ot the fourth Gospel, see Schurer, in +the Contemporary Review for September, 1891. American readers, regarding +this and the whole series of subjects of which this forms a part, may +most profitably study the Rev. Dr. Cone's Gospel Criticism and Historic +Christianity, one of the most lucid and judicial of recent works in this +field. +</pre> + <p> + In 1881 came an event of great importance as regards the development of a + more frank and open dealing with scriptural criticism. In that year + appeared the Revised Version of the New Testament. It was exceedingly + cautious and conservative; but it had the vast merit of being absolutely + conscientious. One thing showed, in a striking way, ethical progress in + theological methods. Although all but one of the English revisers + represented Trinitarian bodies, they rejected the two great proof texts + which had so long been accounted essential bulwarks of Trinitarian + doctrine. Thus disappeared at last from the Epistle of St. John the text + of the Three Witnesses, which had for centuries held its place in spite of + its absence from all the earlier important manuscripts, and of its + rejection in later times by Erasmus, Luther, Isaac Newton, Porson, and a + long line of the greatest biblical scholars. And with this was thrown out + the other like unto it in spurious origin and zealous intent, that + interpolation of the word "God" in the sixteenth verse of the third + chapter of the First Epistle to Timothy, which had for ages served as a + warrant for condemning some of the noblest of Christians, even such men as + Newton and Milton and Locke and Priestley and Channing. + </p> + <p> + Indeed, so honest were the revisers that they substituted the correct + reading of Luke ii, 33, in place of the time-honoured corruption in the + King James version which had been thought necessary to safeguard the dogma + of the virgin birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Thus came the true reading, "His + FATHER and his mother" instead of the old piously fraudulent words "JOSEPH + and his mother." + </p> + <p> + An even more important service to the new and better growth of + Christianity was the virtual setting aside of the last twelve verses of + the Gospel according to St. Mark; for among these stood that sentence + which has cost the world more innocent blood than any other—the + words "He that believeth not shall be damned." From this source had + logically grown the idea that the intellectual rejection of this or that + dogma which dominant theology had happened at any given time to pronounce + essential, since such rejection must bring punishment infinite in agony + and duration, is a crime to be prevented at any cost of finite cruelty. + Still another service rendered to humanity by the revisers was in + substituting a new and correct rendering for the old reading of the famous + text regarding the inspiration of Scripture, which had for ages done so + much to make our sacred books a fetich. By this more correct reading the + revisers gave a new charter to liberty in biblical research.(501) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (501) The texts referred to as most beneficially changed by the revisers +are I John v, 7 and I Timothy iii, 16. Mention may also be made of +the fact that the American revision gave up the Trinitarian version of +Romans ix, 5, and that even their more conservative British brethren, +while leaving it in the text, discredited it in the margin. +</pre> + <p> + Though revisers thought it better not to suppress altogether the last + twelve verses of St. Mark's Gospel, they softened the word "damned" to + "condemned," and separated them from the main Gospel, adding a note + stating that "the two oldest Greek manuscripts, and some other + authorities, omit from verse nine to the end"; and that "some other + authorities have a different ending to this Gospel." + </p> + <p> + The resistance of staunch high churchmen of the older type even to so mild + a reform as the first change above noted may be exemplified by a story + told of Philpotts, Bishop of Exeter, about the middle of the nineteenth + century. A kindly clergyman reading an invitation to the holy communion, + and thinking that so an affectionate a call was disfigured by the harsh + phrase "eateth and drinketh to his own damnation," ventured timidly to + substitute the word "condemnation." Thereupon the bishop, who was kneeling + with the rest of the congregation, threw up his head and roared + "DAMNATION!" The story is given in T. A. Trollope's What I Remember, vol. + i, p. 444. American churchmen may well rejoice that the fathers of the + American branch of the Anglican Church were wise enough and Christian + enough to omit from their Prayer Book this damnatory clause, as well as + the Commination Service and the Athanasian Creed. + </p> + <p> + Most valuable, too, have been studies during the latter part of the + nineteenth century upon the formation of the canon of Scripture. The + result of these has been to substitute something far better for that + conception of our biblical literature, as forming one book handed out of + the clouds by the Almighty, which had been so long practically the + accepted view among probably the majority of Christians. Reverent scholars + have demonstrated our sacred literature to be a growth in obedience to + simple laws natural and historical; they have shown how some books of the + Old Testament were accepted as sacred, centuries before our era, and how + others gradually gained sanctity, in some cases only fully acquiring it + long after the establishment of the Christian Church. The same slow growth + has also been shown in the New Testament canon. It has been demonstrated + that the selection of the books composing it, and their separation from + the vast mass of spurious gospels, epistles, and apocalyptic literature + was a gradual process, and, indeed, that the rejection of some books and + the acceptance of others was accidental, if anything is accidental. + </p> + <p> + So, too, scientific biblical research has, as we have seen, been obliged + to admit the existence of much mythical and legendary matter, as a setting + for the great truths not only of the Old Testament but of the New. It has + also shown, by the comparative study of literatures, the process by which + some books were compiled and recompiled, adorned with beautiful + utterances, strengthened or weakened by alterations and interpolations + expressing the views of the possessors or transcribers, and attributed to + personages who could not possibly have written them. The presentation of + these things has greatly weakened that sway of mere dogma which has so + obscured the simple teachings of Christ himself; for it has shown that the + more we know of our sacred books, the less certain we become as to the + authenticity of "proof texts," and it has disengaged more and more, as the + only valuable residuum, like the mass of gold at the bottom of the + crucible, the personality, spirit, teaching, and ideals of the blessed + Founder of Christianity. More and more, too, the new scholarship has + developed the conception of the New Testament as, like the Old, the growth + of literature in obedience to law—a conception which in al + probability will give it its strongest hold on the coming centuries. In + making this revelation Christian scholarship has by no means done work + mainly destructive. It has, indeed, swept away a mass of noxious growths, + but it has at the same time cleared the ground for a better growth of + Christianity—a growth through which already pulsates the current of + a nobler life. It has forever destroyed the contention of scholars like + those of the eighteenth century who saw, in the multitude of + irreconcilable discrepancies between various biblical statements, merely + evidences of priestcraft and intentional fraud. The new scholarship has + shown that even such absolute contradictions as those between the accounts + of the early life of Jesus by Matthew and Luke, and between the date of + the crucifixion and details of the resurrection in the first three Gospels + and in the fourth, and other discrepancies hardly less serious, do not + destroy the historical character of the narrative. Even the hopelessly + conflicting genealogies of the Saviour and the evidently mythical + accretions about the simple facts of his birth and life are thus full of + interest when taken as a natural literary development in obedience to the + deepest religious feeling.(502) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (502) Among the newer English works of the canon of Scripture, +especially as regards the Old Testament, see Ryle in work cited. As to +the evidences of frequent mutilations of the New Testament text, as well +as of frequent charge of changing texts made against each other by early +Christian writers, see Reuss, History of the New Testament, vol. ii, S +362. For a reverent and honest treatment of some of the discrepancies +and contradictions which are absolutely irreconcilable, see Crooker, as +above, appendix; also Cone, Gospel Criticism and Historic Christianity, +especially chap. ii; also Matthew Arnold, Literature and Dogma, and God +and the Bible, especially chap. vi; and for a brief but full showing of +them in a judicial and kindly spirit, see Laing, Problems of the Future, +chap. ix, on The Historical Element in the Gospels. +</pre> + <p> + Among those who have wrought most effectively to bring the leaders of + thought in the English-speaking nations to this higher conception, Matthew + Arnold should not be forgotten. By poetic insight, broad scholarship, + pungent statement, pithy argument, and an exquisitely lucid style, he + aided effectually during the latter half of the nineteenth century in + bringing the work of specialists to bear upon the development of a broader + and deeper view. In the light of his genius a conception of our sacred + books at the same time more literary as well as more scientific has grown + widely and vigorously, while the older view which made of them a fetich + and a support for unchristian dogmas has been more and more thrown into + the background. The contributions to these results by the most eminent + professors at the great Christian universities of the English-speaking + world, Oxford and Cambridge taking the lead, are most hopeful signs of a + new epoch. + </p> + <p> + Very significant also is a change in the style of argument against the + scientific view. Leading supporters of the older opinions see more and + more clearly the worthlessness of rhetoric against ascertained fact: mere + dogged resistance to cogent argument evidently avails less and less; and + the readiness of the more prominent representatives of the older thought + to consider opposing arguments, and to acknowledge any force they may + have, is certainly of good omen. The concessions made in Lux Mundi + regarding scriptural myths and legends have been already mentioned. + </p> + <p> + Significant also has been the increasing reprobation in the Church itself + of the profound though doubtless unwitting immoralities of RECONCILERS. + The castigation which followed the exploits of the greatest of these in + our own time—Mr. Gladstone, at the hands of Prof. Huxley—did + much to complete a work in which such eminent churchmen as Stanley, + Farrar, Sanday, Cheyne, Driver, and Sayce had rendered good service. + </p> + <p> + Typical among these evidences of a better spirit in controversy has been + the treatment of the question regarding mistaken quotations from the Old + Testament in the New, and especially regarding quotations by Christ + himself. For a time this was apparently the most difficult of all matters + dividing the two forces; but though here and there appear champions of + tradition, like the Bishop of Gloucester, effectual resistance to the new + view has virtually ceased; in one way or another the most conservative + authorities have accepted the undoubted truth revealed by a simple + scientific method. Their arguments have indeed been varied. While some + have fallen back upon Le Clerc's contention that "Christ did not come to + teach criticism to the Jews," and others upon Paley's argument that the + Master shaped his statements in accordance with the ideas of his time, + others have taken refuge in scholastic statements—among them that of + Irenaeus regarding "a quiescence of the divine word," or the somewhat + startling explanation by sundry recent theologians that "our Lord emptied + himself of his Godhead."(504) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (504) For Matthew Arnold, see, besides his Literature and Dogma, his St. +Paul and Protestantism. As to the quotations in the New Testament from +the Old, see Toy, Quotations in the New Testament, 1889, p. 72; also +Kuenen, The Prophets and Prophecy in Israel. For Le Clerc's method of +dealing with the argument regarding quotations from the Old Testament in +the New, see earlier parts of the present chapter. For Paley's mode, +see his Evidences, part iii, chapter iii. For the more scholastic +expressions from Irenaeus and others, see Gore, Bampton Lectures, 1891, +especially note on p. 267. For a striking passage on the general subject +see B. W. Bacon, Genesis of Genesis, p. 33, ending with the words, "We +must decline to stake the authority of Jesus Christ on a question of +literary criticism." +</pre> + <p> + Nor should there be omitted a tribute to the increasing courtesy shown in + late years by leading supporters of the older view. During the last two + decades of the present century there has been a most happy departure from + the older method of resistance, first by plausibilities, next by epithets, + and finally by persecution. To the bitterness of the attacks upon Darwin, + the Essayists and Reviewers, and Bishop Colenso, have succeeded, among + really eminent leaders, a far better method and tone. While Matthew Arnold + no doubt did much in commending "sweet reasonableness" to theological + controversialists, Mr. Gladstone, by his perfect courtesy to his + opponents, even when smarting under their heaviest blows, has set a most + valuable example. Nor should the spirit shown by Bishop Ellicott, leading + a forlorn hope for the traditional view, pass without a tribute of + respect. Truly pathetic is it to see this venerable and learned prelate, + one of the most eminent representatives of the older biblical research, + even when giving solemn warnings against the newer criticisms, and under + all the temptations of ex cathedra utterance, remaining mild and gentle + and just in the treatment of adversaries whose ideas he evidently abhors. + Happily, he is comforted by the faith that Christianity will survive; and + this faith his opponents fully share.(505) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (505) As an example of courtesy between theologic opponents may be cited +the controversy between Mr. Gladstone and Prof. Huxley, Principal Gore's +Bampton Lectures for 1891, and Bishop Ellicott's Charges, published in +1893. +</pre> + <p> + To the fact that the suppression of personal convictions among "the + enlightened" did not cease with the Medicean popes there are many + testimonies. One especially curious was mentioned to the present writer by + a most honoured diplomatist and scholar at Rome. While this gentleman was + looking over the books of an eminent cardinal, recently deceased, he + noticed a series of octavos bearing on their backs the title "Acta + Apostolorum." Surprised at such an extension of the Acts of Apostles, he + opened a volume and found the series to be the works of Voltaire. As to a + similar condition of things in the Church of England may be cited the + following from Froude's Erasmus: "I knew various persons of high + reputation a few years ago who thought at the bottom very much as Bishop + Colenso thought, who nevertheless turned and rent him to clear their own + reputations—which they did not succeed in doing." See work cited, + close of Lecture XI. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0089" id="link2H_4_0089"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VI. RECONSTRUCTIVE FORCE OF SCIENTIFIC CRITICISM. + </h2> + <p> + For all this dissolving away of traditional opinions regarding our sacred + literature, there has been a cause far more general and powerful than any + which has been given, for it is a cause surrounding and permeating all. + This is simply the atmosphere of thought engendered by the development of + all sciences during the last three centuries. + </p> + <p> + Vast masses of myth, legend, marvel, and dogmatic assertion, coming into + this atmosphere, have been dissolved and are now dissolving quietly away + like icebergs drifted into the Gulf Stream. In earlier days, when some + critic in advance of his time insisted that Moses could not have written + an account embracing the circumstances of his own death, it was sufficient + to answer that Moses was a prophet; if attention was called to the fact + that the great early prophets, by all which they did and did not do, + showed that there could not have existed in their time any "Levitical + code," a sufficient answer was "mystery"; and if the discrepancy was noted + between the two accounts of creation in Genesis, or between the + genealogies or the dates of the crucifixion in the Gospels, the cogent + reply was "infidelity." But the thinking world has at last been borne by + the general development of a scientific atmosphere beyond that kind of + refutation. + </p> + <p> + If, in the atmosphere generated by the earlier developed sciences, the + older growths of biblical interpretation have drooped and withered and are + evidently perishing, new and better growths have arisen with roots running + down into the newer sciences. Comparative Anthropology in general, by + showing that various early stages of belief and observance, once supposed + to be derived from direct revelation from heaven to the Hebrews, are still + found as arrested developments among various savage and barbarous tribes; + Comparative Mythology and Folklore, by showing that ideas and beliefs + regarding the Supreme Power in the universe are progressive, and not less + in Judea than in other parts of the world; Comparative Religion and + Literature, by searching out and laying side by side those main facts in + the upward struggle of humanity which show that the Israelites, like other + gifted peoples, rose gradually, through ghost worship, fetichism, and + polytheism, to higher theological levels; and that, as they thus rose, + their conceptions and statements regarding the God they worshipped became + nobler and better—all these sciences are giving a new solution to + those problems which dogmatic theology has so long laboured in vain to + solve. While researches in these sciences have established the fact that + accounts formerly supposed to be special revelations to Jews and + Christians are but repetitions of widespread legends dating from far + earlier civilizations, and that beliefs formerly thought fundamental to + Judaism and Christianity are simply based on ancient myths, they have also + begun to impress upon the intellect and conscience of the thinking world + the fact that the religious and moral truths thus disengaged from the old + masses of myth and legend are all the more venerable and authoritative, + and that all individual or national life of any value must be vitalized by + them.(506) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (506) For plaintive lamentations over the influence of this atmosphere +of scientific thought upon the most eminent contemporary Christian +scholars, see the Christus Comprobator, by the Bishop of Gloucester and +Bristol, London, 1893, and the article in the Contemporary Review for +May, 1892, by the Bishop of Colchester, passim. For some less +known examples of sacred myths and legends inherited from ancient +civilizations, see Lenormant, Les Origines de l'Histoire, passim, but +especially chaps. ii, iv, v, vi; see also Goldziher. +</pre> + <p> + If, then, modern science in general has acted powerfully to dissolve away + the theories and dogmas of the older theologic interpretation, it has also + been active in a reconstruction and recrystallization of truth; and very + powerful in this reconstruction have been the evolution doctrines which + have grown out of the thought and work of men like Darwin and Spencer. + </p> + <p> + In the light thus obtained the sacred text has been transformed: out of + the old chaos has come order; out of the old welter of hopelessly + conflicting statements in religion and morals has come, in obedience to + this new conception of development, the idea of a sacred literature which + mirrors the most striking evolution of morals and religion in the history + of our race. Of all the sacred writings of the world, it shows us our own + as the most beautiful and the most precious; exhibiting to us the most + complete religious development to which humanity has attained, and holding + before us the loftiest ideals which our race has known. Thus it is that, + with the keys furnished by this new race of biblical scholars, the way has + been opened to treasures of thought which have been inaccessible to + theologians for two thousand years. + </p> + <p> + As to the Divine Power in the universe: these interpreters have shown how, + beginning with the tribal god of the Hebrews—one among many jealous, + fitful, unseen, local sovereigns of Asia Minor—the higher races have + been borne on to the idea of the just Ruler of the whole earth, as + revealed by the later and greater prophets of Israel, and finally to the + belief in the Universal Father, as best revealed in the New Testament. As + to man: beginning with men after Jehovah's own heart—cruel, + treacherous, revengeful—we are borne on to an ideal of men who do + right for right's sake; who search and speak the truth for truth's sake; + who love others as themselves. As to the world at large: the races + dominant in religion and morals have been lifted from the idea of a + "chosen people" stimulated and abetted by their tribal god in every sort + of cruelty and injustice, to the conception of a vast community in which + the fatherhood of God overarches all, and the brotherhood of man permeates + all. + </p> + <p> + Thus, at last, out of the old conception of our Bible as a collection of + oracles—a mass of entangling utterances, fruitful in wrangling + interpretations, which have given to the world long and weary ages of + "hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness"; of fetichism, subtlety, and + pomp; of tyranny bloodshed, and solemnly constituted imposture; of + everything which the Lord Jesus Christ most abhorred—has been + gradually developed through the centuries, by the labours, sacrifices, and + even the martyrdom of a long succession of men of God, the conception of + it as a sacred literature—a growth only possible under that divine + light which the various orbs of science have done so much to bring into + the mind and heart and soul of man—a revelation, not of the Fall of + Man, but of the Ascent of Man—an exposition, not of temporary dogmas + and observances, but of the Eternal Law of Righteousness—the one + upward path for individuals and for nations. No longer an oracle, good for + the "lower orders" to accept, but to be quietly sneered at by "the + enlightened"—no longer a fetich, whose defenders must be + persecutors, or reconcilers, or "apologists"; but a most fruitful fact, + which religion and science may accept as a source of strength to both. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History of the Warfare of Science with +Theology in Christendom, by Andrew Dickson White + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WARFARE OF SCIENCE WITH THEOLOGY *** + +***** This file should be named 505-h.htm or 505-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/5/0/505/ + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer, and David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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