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@@ -0,0 +1,34500 @@ +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: April, 1996 [Etext #505] +Posting Date: November 27, 2009 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WARFARE OF SCIENCE WITH THEOLOGY *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer + + + + + +HISTORY OF THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE WITH THEOLOGY IN CHRISTENDOM + +By Andrew Dickson White + + +Two Volumes Combined + + +To the Memory of + +EZRA CORNELL + +I DEDICATE THIS BOOK. + + + +Thoughts that great hearts once broke for, we + +Breathe cheaply in the common air.--LOWELL + + +Dicipulus est prioris posterior dies.--PUBLIUS SYRUS + + +Truth is the daughter of Time.--BACON + + +The Truth shall make you free.--ST. JOHN, viii, 32. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +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. + +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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +And now a few words regarding the evolution of this book. + +It is something over a quarter of a century since I labored with Ezra +Cornell in founding the university which bears his honored name. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +As I look back across the intervening years, I know not whether to be +more astonished or amused at our simplicity. + +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. + +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: + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +More and more I saw that it was the conflict between two epochs in the +evolution of human thought--the theological and the scientific. + +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. + +The variety of residence and occupation arising from these causes may +perhaps explain some peculiarities in this book which might otherwise +puzzle my reader. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, ST. PETERSBURG, + +April 14,1894. + +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. + +CORNELL UNIVERSITY, ITHACA, N.Y., + +August 15, 1895. + + + +CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. + + + + 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 + + + + 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 + + + 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 + + + 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 + + + + 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 + + + + 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 + + + + 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 + + + + 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 + + + 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 + + + + 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" + + + + 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 + + + + 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 + + + + 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 + + + + 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 + + + + 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" + + + + 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 + + + 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 + + + + 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 + + + + 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 + + + + 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 + + + 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 + + + + 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 + + + + CHAPTER XX. + + FROM THE DIVINE ORACLES TO THE HIGHER CRITICISM. + + + 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 + + + + +CHAPTER I. FROM CREATION TO EVOLUTION. + + + + +I. THE VISIBLE UNIVERSE. + + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 + + +... "from his ample palm Launched forth the rolling planets into space." + +sits on high, enthroned "upon the circle of the heavens," perpetually +controlling and directing them. + +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) + + + (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. + +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. + + +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. + +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: + + "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) + + + + (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. + + +So much for the orthodox view of the MANNER of creation. + +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. + +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." + +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) + + + + (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. + + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +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? + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Among the Romans Lucretius caught much from it, extending the +evolutionary process virtually to all things. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +But, more than this, these men gave a new basis for the theory of +evolution as distinguished from the theory of creation. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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! + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + + + +II. THEOLOGICAL TEACHINGS REGARDING THE ANIMALS AND MAN. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +The next important development of theological reasoning had regard to +the DIVISIONS of the animal kingdom. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +Current legends, stories, and travellers' observations, poor as they +were, tended powerfully to stimulate curiosity in this field. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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." + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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: + +"Chapter VI. Of the Hebrew Name of the Horse." + +"Chapter VII. Of the Colours of the Six Horses in Zechariah." + +"Chapter VIII. Of the Horses in Job." + +"Chapter IX. Of Solomon's Horses, and of the Texts wherein the Writers +praise the Excellence of Horses." + +"Chapter X. Of the Consecrated Horses of the Sun." + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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: + +"Welche Verehrung verdient der Weltenerschopfer, der Gnadig, Als er den +Korkbaum erschuf, gleich auch die Stopfel erfand." + +For the quotation from Zoeckler, see his work already cited, vol. ii, +pp. 74, 440. + + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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?" + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + + + +III. THEOLOGICAL AND SCIENTIFIC THEORIES, OF AN EVOLUTION IN ANIMATED +NATURE. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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). + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + +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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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?" + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +But all this triumph of the Chaldeo-Babylonian creation legends which +the Church had inherited availed but little. + +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. + +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. + +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: + +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. + +2. New wants in animals give rise to new organs. + +3. The development of these organs is in proportion to their employment. + +4. New developments may be transmitted to offspring. + +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. + +In both these statements, imperfect as they were, great truths were +embodied--truths which were sure to grow. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +One source of opposition deserves to be especially mentioned--Louis +Agassiz. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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." + + + + +IV. THE FINAL EFFORT OF THEOLOGY. + +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. + +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." + +This shot reverberated through England, and indeed through other +countries. + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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.'" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + + + +CHAPTER II. GEOGRAPHY. + + + + +I. THE FORM OF THE EARTH. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +In Persia we have theories of geography based upon similar conceptions +and embalmed in sacred texts. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + + + + +II. THE DELINEATION OF THE EARTH. + + +Every great people of antiquity, as a rule, regarded its own central +city or most holy place as necessarily the centre of the earth. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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: + +"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." + +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. + + +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) + + + (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.") + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + + + +III. THE INHABITANTS OF THE EARTH. + + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Cosmas Indicopleustes also attacked the doctrine with especial +bitterness, citing a passage from St. Luke to prove that antipodes are +theologically impossible. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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." + + + + + +IV. THE SIZE OF THE EARTH. + + +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. + +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: + +"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." + +"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." + +These statements were reiterated in other verses, and were naturally +considered as of controlling authority. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + + + + +V. THE CHARACTER OF THE EARTH'S SURFACE. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER III. ASTRONOMY. + + + + +I. THE OLD SACRED THEORY OF THE UNIVERSE. + + +The next great series of battles was fought over the relations of the +visible heavens to the earth. + +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?" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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." + +The vast significance of this view, and its power in resisting any real +astronomical science, we shall see, especially in the time of Galileo. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +Let us look into this vast creation--the highest achievement of +theology--somewhat more closely. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + + + +II. THE HELIOCENTRIC THEORY. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + +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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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." + +Not till thirty years after did a friend dare write on his tombstone a +memorial of his discovery.(47) + + + (47) See Flammarion, Vie de Copernic, p. 190. + + +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. + +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." + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +Ten years after the martyrdom of Bruno the truth of Copernicus's +doctrine was established by the telescope of Galileo.(53) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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.) + + + + +III. THE WAR UPON GALILEO. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + + (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. + + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (58) See Ticknor, History of Spanish Literature, vol. iii. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + + + (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. + + + + +IV. VICTORY OF THE CHURCH OVER GALILEO. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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: + +"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) + + + (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. + + +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." + +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. + +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) + + + (64) For the substitution of the word "notorious" for "renowned" by +order of the Inquisition, see Martin, p.227. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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: + +"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.... + +"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." + +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: + +"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.... + +"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...." + +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." + +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. + +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?" + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (68) For Clovius, see Zoeckler, Geschichte, vol. i, pp. 684 and 763. For +Calvin and Turretin, see Shields, The Final Philosophy, pp. 60, 61. + + +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: + +"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." + + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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.... + +"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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +Nor has the warfare against the dead champions of science been carried +on by the older Church alone. + +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) + + + (71) See Bruhns and Lassell, Life of Humboldt, London, 1873, vol. ii, p. +411. + + + + +V. RESULTS OF THE VICTORY OVER GALILEO. + + +We return now to the sequel of the Galileo case. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + + + + +VI. THE RETREAT OF THE CHURCH AFTER ITS VICTORY OVER GALILEO. + + +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. + +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. + +But in the older Church it was far less easy. The retreat of the +sacro-scientific army of Church apologists lasted through two centuries. + +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. + +True, the Pope did not formally sign the decree against the Copernican +theory THEN; but this came later. In 1664 Alexander VII prefixed to +the Index containing the condemnations of the works of Copernicus and +Galileo and "all books which affirm the motion of the earth" a papal +bull signed by himself, binding the contents of the Index upon the +consciences of the faithful. This bull confirmed and approved in express +terms, finally, decisively, and infallibly, the condemnation of "all +books teaching the movement of the earth and the stability of the +sun."(76) + + + (76) See Rev. William W. Roberts, The Pontifical Decrees against the +Doctrine of the Earth's Movement, London, 1885, p. 94; and for the text +of the papal bull, Speculatores domus Israel, pp. 132, 133, see also St. +George Mivart's article in the Nineteenth Century for July, 1885. 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. + + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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." + +Not one of these condemnations was directed against Galileo "for +reconciling his ideas with Scripture."(77) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (79) This argument also seems to have been foisted upon the world by the +wily Monsignor Marini. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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? + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (81) See the citation from the Vatican manuscript given in Gebler, p. +78. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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: + +"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." + +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. + +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." + +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) + + + (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). + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (86) As a pendant to this ejaculation of Kepler may be cited the words +of Linnaeus: "Deum ominpotentem a tergo transeuntem vidi et obstupui." + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + + + + +CHAPTER IV. FROM "SIGNS AND WONDERS" TO LAW IN THE HEAVENS. + + + + +I. THE THEOLOGICAL VIEW. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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: + + +"When beggars die, there are no comets seen; The heavens themselves +blaze forth the death of princes." + + +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) + + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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." + +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: + + +"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." + + +Milton, speaking of Satan preparing for combat, says: + + +"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." + + +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. + + + (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. + + +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!" + +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." + +And sometimes, yielding to another phase of his belief, he declared them +works of the devil, and declaimed against them as "harlot stars."(101) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +II. THEOLOGICAL EFFORTS TO CRUSH THE SCIENTIFIC VIEW. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (104) For Maestlin, see his Observatio et Demonstration Cometae, +Tubingen, 1578. For Buttner, see his Cometen Stundbuchlein, Leipsic, +1605. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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." + + + (106) Barbata et caudata. + + +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) + + + (107) See De Angelis, Lectiones Meteorologicae, Rome, 1669. + + +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) + + + (108) See Reinzer, Meteorologica Philosophico-Politica (edition of +Augsburg, 1712), pp. 101-103. + + +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) + + + (109) For Celichius, or Celich, see his own treatise, as above. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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: + +"I am a Rod in God's right hand threatening the German and foreign land." + + +Others for a similar purpose taught: + + +"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." + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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). + + + + +III. THE INVASION OF SCEPTICISM. + + +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) + + + (114) For Cotton Mather, see the Manuductio, pp. 54, 55. + + +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. + +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. + + + (115) For Scaliger, see p. 20 of Dudith's book, cited below. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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). + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (118) See Fontenelle, cited by Champion, p. 167. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + + + + +IV. THEOLOGICAL EFFORTS AT COMPROMISE.--THE FINAL VICTORY OF SCIENCE. + + +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) + + + (120) For these features in cometary theory, see Pingre, vol. i, p. 89; +also Humboldt, Cosmos (English translation, London, 1868), vol. iii, p. +169. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + + (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. + + +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. + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +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." + + + + +CHAPTER V. FROM GENESIS TO GEOLOGY. + + + + +I. GROWTH OF THEOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (126) For citations and authorities on these points, see the chapter on +Meteorology. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (128) For Isidore, see the Etymologiae, xi, 4, xiii, 22. For Bede, see +the Hexaemeron, i, ii, in Migne, tome xci. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (129) Vis lapidifica. + + + (130) Virtus formativa. + + + (131) See authorities given in Mr. Ward's assay, as above. + + +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) + + + (132) For Avicenna, see Lyell and D'Archiac. + + +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) + + + (133) See his Commentary on Genesis, cited by Zoeckler, Geschichte der +Beziehungen zwischen Theologie und Naturwissenschaft, vol. i, p. 690. + + +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) + + + (134) For Pfeiffer, see Zoeckler, vol. i, pp. 688, 689. + + +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. + +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. + + + (135) Succus lapidificus. + + + (136) Aura seminalis. + + +This remained a leading orthodox mode of explanation in the Church, +Catholic and Protestant, for centuries. + + + + +II. EFFORTS TO SUPPRESS THE SCIENTIFIC VIEW. + + +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) + + + (137) See Morley, Life of Palissy the Potter, vol. ii, p. 315 et seq. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + (138) See citation and remark in Lyell's Principles of Geology, chap. +iii, p. 57; also Huxley, Essays on Controverted Questions, p. 62. + + +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) + + + (139) See Beringer's Lithographiae, etc., p. 91. + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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." + +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. + + + (142) See II Peter iii, 6. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (144) See Wesley's sermon on God's Approbation of His Works, parts xi +and xii. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (146) See citation in Mr. Ward's article, as above, p. 390. + + +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!" + + +John Howard summoned England to oppose "those scientific systems which +are calculated to tear up in the public mind every remaining attachment +to Christianity." + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (147) For these citations, see Lyell, Principles of Geology, +introduction. + + +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) + + + (148) See Pye Smith, D. D., Geology and Scripture, pp. 156, 157, 168, +169. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (150) See Silliman's Journal, vol. xxx, p. 114. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + + + + +III. THE FIRST GREAT EFFORT AT COMPROMISE, BASED ON THE FLOOD OF NOAH. + + +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. + +The position which the compromise party took was that the fossils were +produced by the Deluge of Noah. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (153) For Luther's opinion, see his Commentary on Genesis. + + +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. + + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (157) Homo diluvii testis. + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (161) Genie du Christianisme, chap.v, pp. 1-14, cited by Reusch, vol. i, +p. 250. + + + (162) For admirable sketches of Brongniart and other paleobotanists, see +Ward, as above. + + +Still the struggle was not ended, and, a few years later, a forlorn hope +was led in England by Granville Penn. + +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. + + + (163) See the Works of Granville Penn, vol. ii, p. 273. + + +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. + +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: + + +"Some doubts were once expressed about the Flood: Buckland arose, and +all was clear as mud." + + +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!" + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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" + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (166) See Official Report of the National Conference of Unitarian and +other Christian Churches held at Saratoga, 1882, p. 97. + + +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) + + + (167) This was about 1856; see Tylor, Early History of Mankind, p. 329. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (169) See Reusch, Bibel und Natur, chap. xxi. + + +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) + + + (170) See Whiteside, Italy in the Nineteenth Century, vol. iii, chap. +xiv. + + +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) + + + (171) See Zoeckler, vol. ii, p. 472. + + + (172) See Zoeckler, vol. ii, p. 478, and Bosizio, Geologie und die +Sundfluth, Mayence, 1877, preface, p. xiv. + + +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) + + + (173) See Zoeckler, vol. ii, p. 472, 571, and elsewhere; also citations +in Reusch and Shields. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + + + +IV. FINAL EFFORTS AT COMPROMISE.--THE VICTORY OF SCIENCE COMPLETE. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (176) See Zoeckler, vol. ii, p. 475. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (179) See Reusch, vol. i, p. 264. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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) + + + (180) See Mr. Gladstone's Dawn of Creation and Worship, a reply to Dr. +Reville, in the Nineteenth Century for November, 1885. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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? + +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) + + + + (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. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN EGYPTOLOGY, AND ASSYRIOLOGY. + + + + +I. THE SACRED CHRONOLOGY. + + +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. + +The first of these conquests relates to the antiquity of man on the +earth. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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: + +"Joseph lived one hundred and five years. Greece began to cultivate +grain." + +"The Jews were in slavery in Egypt one hundred and forty-four years. +Atlas discovered astrology." + +"Joshua ruled for twenty-seven years. Ericthonius yoked horses +together." + +"Othniel, forty years. Cadmus introduced letters into Greece." + +"Deborah, forty years. Apollo discovered the art of medicine and +invented the cithara." + +"Gideon, forty years. Mercury invented the lyre and gave it to Orpheus." + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + + + + +II. THE NEW CHRONOLOGY. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +As regards archaeology, the earliest known inscriptions point to still +earlier events and buildings, indicating a long sequence in previous +history. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN AND PREHISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY + + + + +I. THE THUNDER-STONES. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +II. THE FLINT WEAPONS AND IMPLEMENTS. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. THE "FALL OF MAN" AND ANTHROPOLOGY + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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: + + +"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." + + +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. + +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) + + + (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-- + +"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"--- + +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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. THE "FALL OF MAN" AND ETHNOLOGY. + + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + + + +CHAPTER X. THE "FALL OF MAN" AND HISTORY. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (196) As to the good effects of migration, see Waitz, Introduction to +Anthropology, London, 1863, p. 345. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +"We do not propose," said the bishop, with quite gratuitous +suggestiveness, "to treat you as the Inquisition treated Galileo." + +"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." + +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. + +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"! + +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: + + +"Science and Revelation here In perfect harmony appear, Guiding young +feet along the road Through grace and Nature up to God." + + +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. + +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) + + + (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 + + +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. + +As far back as the year 1857 the Presbyterian Synod of Mississippi +passed the following resolution: + +"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; + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. FROM "THE PRINCE OF THE POWER OF THE AIR" TO METEOROLOGY + + + + +I. GROWTH OF A THEOLOGICAL THEORY. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + (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). + + + (200) "Firmans tonitrua" (Amos iv, 13); the phrase does not appear in +our version. + + +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) + + + (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). + + +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. + + + (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." + + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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). + + +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) + + + (204) See Bede, De natura rerum (Migne, Patr. Lat., vol. xc). + + +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) + + + (205) See the treatise De mundi constitutione, in Bede's Opera (Migne, +Patr. Lat., vol. xc, p. 884). + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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." + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (208) See Joannes a S. Geminiano, Summa, c. 75. + + +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) + + + (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). + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (212) See Trollope, History of Florence, vol. i, p. 64. + + +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) + + + (213) See Caesarius Heisterbacensis, Dialogus miraculorum, lib. x, c. +28-30. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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." + +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." + +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) + + + (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). + + +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. + + + + +II. DIABOLIC AGENCY IN STORMS. + + +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. + +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. + + + (217) For so the Vulgate and all the early versions rendered Ps. xcvi, +5. + + +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? + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (220) See, for lists of such admiranda, any of the early writers--e. g., +Vincent of Beauvais, Reisch's Margarita, or Eck's Aristotle. + + +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) + + + (221) See the Lumen animae, Eichstadt, 1479. + + +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) + + + (222) See Eck, Aristotelis Meteorologica, Augsburg, 1519. + + +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) + + + (223) For Luther, see the Table Talk; also Michelet, Life of Luther +(translated by Hazlitt, p. 321). + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (226) See Polidorus Valerius, Practica exorcistarum; also the Thesaurus +exorcismorum (Cologne, 1626), pp. 158-162. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (228) See Gretser, De benedictionibus et maledictionibus, lib. ii, c. +48. + + +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) + + + (229) So, at least, says Gretser (in his De ben. et aml., as above). + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + + (231) See Rydberg, The Magic of the Middle Ages, translated by Edgren, +pp. 63-66. + + +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) + + + (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: + +"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." + +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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +But the means of baffling the powers of the air which came to be most +widely used was the ringing of consecrated church bells. + +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) + + + (235) Perticae. See Montanus, Hist. Nachricht van den Glocken (Chenmitz, +1726), p. 121; and Meyer, Der Aberglaube des Mittelalters, p. 186. + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +Another, in one of the forest cantons of Switzerland, bears a doggerel +couplet, which may be thus translated: + +"On the devil my spite I'll vent, And, God helping, bad weather +prevent."(238) + + + (238) "An dem Tufel will cih mich rachen, Mit der hilf gotz alle bosen +wetter erbrechen." (See Meyer, as above.) + + +Very common were inscriptions embodying this doctrine in sonorous Latin. + +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: + +"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) + + + (239) Sleiden's Commentaries, English translation, as above, fol. 334 +(lib. xxi, sub anno 1549). + + +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. + +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. + +To add to the efficacy of such baptisms, water was sometimes brought +from the river Jordan.(240) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (241) For prayers at bell baptisms, see Arago, Oeuvres, Paris, 1854, +vol. iv, p. 322. + + +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) + + + (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.) + + + (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. + + + (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." + + +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) + + + (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. + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (247) See Binsfeld, De Confessionbus Malef., pp. 308-314, edition of +1623. + + + (248) For De Angelis, see his Lectiones Meteorol., p. 75. + + + + +III. THE AGENCY OF WITCHES. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (257) For Wier, or Weyer, see, besides his own works, the excellent +biography by Prof. Binz, of Bonn. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + + + +IV. FRANKLIN'S LIGHTNING-ROD. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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?" + +Yet even this practical solution of the question was not received +without opposition. + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (263) See article on Lightning in the Edinburgh Review for October, +1844. + + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (264) See the Guide des Visiteurs a Lerins, published at the Monastery +in 1880, p. 204; also the Histoire de Lerins, mentioned below. + + +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. + +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. + +And then, above all, at the summit of the central spire, high above +relics, altars, and bells, was placed--A LIGHTNING-ROD!(265) + + + (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. + + +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! + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. FROM MAGIC TO CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS. + + +I. + +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. + +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) + + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (272) For citations showing this subordination of science to theology, +see Eicken, chap. vi. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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!" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +A hostility similar in kind, though less in degree, was shown in +Protestant countries. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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) + + + (279) See the Novum Organon, translated by the Rev. G. W. Kitchin, +Oxford, 1855, chaps. lxv and lxxxix. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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) + + + (281) For Loescher's protest, see Julian Schmidt, Geschichte des +geistigen Lebens, etc., vol. i, p. 319. + + + (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. + + + +II. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +The main attack was made rather upon biological science than upon +physics and chemistry, yet it was clear that all were involved together. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (286) De Morgan, Paradoxes, pp. 421-428; also Daubeny's Essays. + + +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) + + + (287) See the Berlin newspapers for the summer of 1868, especially +Kladderdatsch. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. FROM MIRACLES TO MEDICINE. + + + + +I. THE EARLY AND SACRED THEORIES OF DISEASE. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +II. GROWTH OF LEGENDS OF HEALING. + +--THE LIFE OF XAVIER AS A TYPICAL EXAMPLE. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +Two or three occurrences like these form the whole basis for the +miraculous account, so far as Xavier's own writings are concerned. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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) + + + (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 + + +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) + + + (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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + + +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. + + + + +III. THE MEDIAEVAL MIRACLES OF HEALING CHECK MEDICAL SCIENCE. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + + + + +IV. THE ATTRIBUTION OF DISEASE TO SATANIC INFLUENCE. + +--"PASTORAL MEDICINE" CHECKS SCIENTIFIC EFFORT. + + +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) + + + (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." + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + + + + +V. THEOLOGICAL OPPOSITION TO ANATOMICAL STUDIES. + + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + + + + +VI. NEW BEGINNINGS OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + + + + +VII. THEOLOGICAL DISCOURAGEMENT OF MEDICINE. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (311) See Baas, p. 614; also Biedermann. + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + + + + +VIII. FETICH CURES UNDER PROTESTANTISM.--THE ROYAL TOUCH. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + + + + +IX. THE SCIENTIFIC STRUGGLE FOR ANATOMY. + + +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. + +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) + + + (319) For the promotion of medical science and practice, especially in +the thirteenth century, by the universities, see Baas, pp. 222-224. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (322) The original painting of Vesalius at work in his cell, by Hamann, +is now at Cornell University. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + + + + +X. THEOLOGICAL OPPOSITION TO INOCULATION, VACCINATION, AND THE USE OF +ANAESTHETICS. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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." + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + + + + +XI. FINAL BREAKING AWAY OF THE THEOLOGICAL THEORY IN MEDICINE. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. FROM FETICH TO HYGIENE. + + + + +I. THE THEOLOGICAL VIEW OF EPIDEMICS AND SANITATION. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + + + +II. GRADUAL DECAY OF THEOLOGICAL VIEWS REGARDING SANITATION. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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: + +"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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + + + + +III. THE TRIUMPH OF SANITARY SCIENCE. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +IV. THE RELATION OF SANITARY SCIENCE TO RELIGION. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. FROM "DEMONIACAL POSSESSION" TO INSANITY. + + + + +I. THEOLOGICAL IDEAS OF LUNACY AND ITS TREATMENT. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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." + + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + (342) It is significant of this scientific attitude that the Greek word +for superstition means, literally, fear of gods or demons. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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! + +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: + +"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." + +"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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +Some of those decent enough to be printed in these degenerate days ran +as follows: + +"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. + +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) + + + (351) See the Conjuratio on p. 300 of the Thesaurus, and the general +directions given on pp. 251, 251. + + +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. + +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. + +But these were merely preliminaries to the exorcism proper. In this +the most profound theological thought and sacred science of the period +culminated. + +Most of its forms were childish, but some rise to almost Miltonic +grandeur. As an example of the latter, we may take the following: + +"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! + +"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!" + +Besides these, were long litanies of billingsgate, cursing, and +threatening. One of these "scourging" exorcisms runs partly as follows: + +"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) + + + (352) Thesaurus Exorcismorum, pp. 812-817. + + +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) + + + (353) Ibid., p. 859. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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." + + +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) + + + (358) I shall discuss these epidemics of possession, which form a +somewhat distinct class of phenomena, in the next chapter. + + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (360) See Geraldus Cambrensis, cited by Tuke, as above, pp. 8, 9. + + +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. + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +Such was the treatment of demoniacs developed by theology, and such the +practice enforced by ecclesiasticism for more than a thousand years. + +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. + + + + +II. BEGINNINGS OF A HEALTHFUL SCEPTICISM. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + + + (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. + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + + (368) See Kirchhoff, as above. + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (373) This branch of the subject will be discussed more at length in a +future chapter. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (374) See Esquirol, Des Maladies mentales, vol. i, pp. 488, 489; vol. +ii, p. 529. + + +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) + + + (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. + + + + + +III. THE FINAL STRUGGLE AND VICTORY OF SCIENCE.--PINEL AND TUKE. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (378) See Kirchhoff, pp. 181-187; also Langin, Religion und +Hexenprozess, as above cited. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + +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). + +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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + +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." + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (382) See D. H. Tuke, as above, p. 110; also Trelat, as already cited. + + +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. + +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." + +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) + + + (383) See D. H. Tuke, as above, p. 116-142, and 512; also the Edinburgh +Review for April, 1803. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. FROM DIABOLISM TO HYSTERIA. + + + + +I. THE EPIDEMICS OF "POSSESSION." + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Naturally, such leaders had very many adherents in that class, so large +in all times, who find that + + +"To follow foolish precedents and wink With both our eyes, is easier +than to think."(384) + + + (384) As to eminent physicians' finding a stumbling-block in hysterical +mania, see Kirchhoff's article, p. 351, cited in previous chapter. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Into this mass of "possession" there was also clearly poured a current +of scoundrelism which increased the disorder. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +Out of many examples we may take a few as typical. + +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. + +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) + + + (390) See citation from Zimmermann's Solitude, in Carpenter, pp. 34, +314. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (392) See Dagron, chap. ii. + + +Twenty years later a far more striking case occurred at Loudun, in +western France, where a convent of Ursuline nuns was "afflicted by +demons." + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +Out of this mixture of "possession" within the convent and malignity +without it came a charge that Grandier had bewitched the young women. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (395) See Bersot, Mesmer et la Magnetisme animal, third edition, Paris, +1864, pp. 95 et seq. + + +Toward the end of the same century similar manifestations began to +appear on a large scale in America. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (397) For curious examples of this, see Upham's History of Salem +Witchcraft, vol. i. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (399) See Drake, The Witchcraft Delusion in New England, vol. iii, pp. +34 et seq. + + +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. + +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. + +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: + +"... 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) + + + (400) See Calef, in Drake, vol ii; also Upham. + + +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." + +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. + +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. + +Each of these was, in consequence of this disbelief, charged with +collusion with Satan; but such charges seemed now to lose their force. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + +"De par le Roi, defense a Dieu De faire des miracles dans ce lieu"-- + + +which, being translated from doggerel French into doggerel English, is-- + +"By order of the king, the Lord must forbear To work any more of his miracles here." + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (402) See Soldan, Scherr, Diefenbach, and others. + + +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. + +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) + + + (403) See Adam's Dictionary of All Religions, article on Jumpers; also +Hecker. + + +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. + +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. + + + + +II. BEGINNINGS OF HELPFUL SCEPTICISM. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (404) For these examples and others, see Tuke, Influence of the Mind +upon the Body, vol. i, pp. 100, 277; also Hecker's essay. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +But suddenly came something more miraculous, apparently, than all +these wonders. Without any assigned cause, this epidemic of possession +diminished and the devil disappeared. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +The account is given in the words of an eye-witness: + +"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." + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + + + + +III. THEOLOGICAL "RESTATEMENTS."--FINAL TRIUMPH OF THE SCIENTIFIC VIEW +AND METHODS. + + +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) + + + (408) See Figuier, Histoire de Merveilleux, vol. i, p. 403. + + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +With this great effort the old theory in England seemed practically +exhausted. + +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) + + + (409) See Figuier; also Collin de Plancy, Dictionnaire Infernale, +article Posseses. + + +The final triumph of science in this part of the great field has been +mainly achieved during the latter half of the present century. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + +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. + +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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. FROM BABEL TO COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY. + + + + +I. THE SACRED THEORY IN ITS FIRST FORM. + + +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. + +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. + +Among the foremost of these questions were three: "Whence came +language?" "Which was the first language?" "How came the diversity of +language?" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +In our sacred books the account runs as follows: + +"And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the +children of men builded. + +"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. + +"Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may +not understand one another's speech. + +"So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the +earth: and they left off to build the city. + +"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.) + +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. + +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: + +"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." + +We can well understand how easily "the gods, assisted by the winds," as +stated in the Chaldean legend, could overthrow a tower thus built. + +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: + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +II. THE SACRED THEORY OF LANGUAGE IN ITS SECOND FORM. + + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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.'" + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +Great prelates, Catholic and Protestant, stood guard over it, favouring +those who supported it, doing their best to destroy those who would +modify it. + +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." + +Of course, by this method of philological juggling, anything could be +proved which the author thought necessary to his pious purpose. + +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. + +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?" + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +How this came about will be shown in the third part of this chapter. + + + + +III. BREAKING DOWN OF THE THEOLOGICAL VIEW. + + +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. + +And yet, as we now look back, it is easy to see that even in that hour +of its triumph it was doomed. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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?" + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +IV. TRIUMPH OF THE NEW SCIENCE. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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": + +"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." + + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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.'" + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + + + +V. SUMMARY. + + +It may be instructive, in conclusion, to sum up briefly the history of +the whole struggle. + +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." + +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. + +Then comes the third stage: advanced theologians endeavour to compromise +on the idea that Adam was "given verbal roots and a mental power." + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. FROM THE DEAD SEA LEGENDS TO COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY, + + + + +I. THE GROWTH OF EXPLANATORY TRANSFORMATION MYTHS. + + +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. + +His Mohammedan camel-driver accounted for them on this wise: + +"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. + +"'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.'" + +The gardener answered: 'I care not for your prayers; give me money, and +I will give you fruit.' + +"'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.' + +"'No,' said the gardener; 'go to the Nile and quench your thirst.' + +"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? ' + +"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. + +"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. + +"'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!' + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +Similar mythical explanations are also found, in all the older religions +of the world, for curiously marked meteoric stones, fossils, and the +like. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +Similar old transformation legends are abundant among the Indians of +America, the negroes of Africa, and the natives of Australia and the +Pacific islands. + +Nor has this making of myths to account for remarkable appearances yet +ceased, even in civilized countries. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +II. MEDIAEVAL GROWTH OF THE DEAD SEA LEGENDS. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +At a very early period, myths and legends, many and circumstantial, grew +up to explain features then so incomprehensible. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +An eminent clergyman who visited this spot recently speaks of the +appearance of this salt range as follows: + +"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) + + + (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. + + +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?" + +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. + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +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." + +In the crusading period, immediately following, all the legends burst +forth more brilliantly than ever. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +In facts now so easy of scientific explanation the theologians found +wonderful matter for argument. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + + + + +III. POST-REFORMATION CULMINATION OF THE DEAD SEA LEGENDS.--BEGINNINGS +OF A HEALTHFUL SCEPTICISM. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +These ideas were not confined to the people at large; we trace them +among scholars. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Yet, as we near the end of the sixteenth century, some evidences of a +healthful and fruitful scepticism begin to appear. + +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. + +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." + +His ascribing belief in this explanatory transformation myth to the +"common people" marks the faint dawn of a new epoch. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (440) For Poole (Polus) see his Synopsis, 1669, p. 179; and for Titinus, +the Lyons edition of his Commentary, 1736, p. 10. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +But in the year 1848 came an episode very striking in its character and +effect. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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: + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Since Balaam was called by Balak to curse his enemies, and "blessed them +altogether," there has never been a more unexpected tribute to truth. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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." + +From this decision there has never been among intelligent men any +appeal. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + + + + +IV. THEOLOGICAL EFFORTS AT COMPROMISE.--TRIUMPH OF THE SCIENTIFIC VIEW. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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.'" + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. FROM LEVITICUS TO POLITICAL ECONOMY + + + + +I. ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF HOSTILITY TO LOANS AT INTEREST. + + +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. + +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. + +The early evolution of the belief that taking interest for money is +sinful presents a curious working together of metaphysical, theological, +and humanitarian ideas. + +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. + +From these sources there came into the early Church the germ of a +theological theory upon the subject. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +Another mode of obtaining relief was tried. Subtle theologians devised +evasions of various sorts. Two among these inventions of the schoolmen +obtained much notoriety. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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!" + +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." + +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. + +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." + + + + +II. RETREAT OF THE CHURCH, PROTESTANT AND CATHOLIC. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + +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. + + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +What these "occasions" and "special grounds" might be, was left very +vague; but this action was sufficient. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +This work was sanctioned by various high ecclesiastical dignitaries, and +served its purpose; for it covered the retreat of the Church. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. FROM THE DIVINE ORACLES TO THE HIGHER CRITICISM. + + + + +I. THE OLDER INTERPRETATION. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +The working of this law has recently been seen on a large scale. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +By such methods also were revealed such historical treasures as that Og, +King of Bashan, escaped the deluge by wading after Noah's ark. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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." + +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. + +Out of reasonings like these, those who followed, especially Cosmas, +developed, as we have seen, a complete theological science of geography +and astronomy.(464) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + +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." + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (467) For the work of the School of Antioch, and especially of +Chrysostom, see the eloquent tribute to it by Farrar, as above. + + +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?" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +The revival of learning in the fifteenth century seemed likely to +undermine this older structure. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +The account of the movement thus begun is next to be given.(471) + + + (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. + + + + +II. BEGINNINGS OF SCIENTIFIC INTERPRETATION. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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." + +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. + + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +At this Le Clerc stood aghast, and finally stammered out a sort of half +recantation.(475) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + + + +III. THE CONTINUED GROWTH OF SCIENTIFIC INTERPRETATION. + + +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) + + + (477) As to the influence of Kant on honest thought in Germany, see +Pfleiderer, as above, chap. i. + + +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) + + + (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. + +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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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." + +In spite of all that could be done, the act of condemnation was carried +in Convocation. + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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." + + + + +IV. THE CLOSING STRUGGLE. + +The storm aroused by Essays and Reviews had not yet subsided when a far +more serious tempest burst upon the English theological world. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +But none of these considerations availed in his behalf at first. + +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) + + + (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: + +"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!" + + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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." + +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!" + +For Matthew Arnold's attack on Colenso, see Macmillan's Magazine, +January, 1863. For Maurice, see the references already given. + + +In the midst of all this controversy stood three men, each of whom has +connected his name with it permanently. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +But another evidence of the coming in of a new epoch was even more +striking. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +In spite of all resistance, the desire for more light upon the sacred +books penetrated the older Church from every side. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (490) For this statement, see an article in the Contemporary Review, +April, 1894, p. 576. + + +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) + + + (491) For these admissions of Father Clarke, see his article The Papal +Encyclical on the Bible, in the Contemporary Review for July, 1894. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + + + + + +V. VICTORY OF THE SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY METHODS. + + +While this struggle for the new truth was going on in various fields, +aid appeared from a quarter whence it was least expected. + +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) + + + (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. + +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. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Thus it was that, by virtue of the infallibility vouchsafed to the +papacy in matters of faith and morals, Buddha became a Christian saint. + +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) + + + (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.) + + +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) + + + (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. + + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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." + +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) + + + (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. + +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." + +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. + + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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." + + +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) + + + (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. + +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. + + + + +VI. RECONSTRUCTIVE FORCE OF SCIENTIFIC CRITICISM. + + +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. + +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. + +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) + + + (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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + + + +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.txt or 505.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 + +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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