The Warfare of Science with Theology by A. D. White

[_Maksutov]

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 Caro-
lina ; 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 Prot-
estant divines — all for holding the doctrines of modern sci-
ence, and in the last years of the nineteenth century.*

But the new truth could not be concealed ; it could
neither be laughed down nor frowned down. Many minds

* For treatment of Copernican ideas by the people, see The Catholic World, as
above; also Melanchthon, tibi supra also Prowe, Copernicus, Berlin, 1883, vol. i,
p. 269, note ; also pp. 27c), 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.

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 en-
trapped at Venice, imprisoned during six years in the dun-
geons 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 Coper-
nicus's doctrine was established by the telescope of Galileo.
Herein was fulfilled one of the most touching of prophe-
cies. 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.

[_Maksutov]

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 profes-


* For Bruno, see Bartholm^ss, Fie de Jordcifio Bruno, Paris, 1846, vol. i-, p. 121
and pp. 212 etseq. ; also Berti, Vita di Giordano Bruno, Firenze, 1868, chap, xvi ;
also Whewell, vol. i, pp. 272, 273. That Whewell is somewhat hasty in attribut-
ing Bruno's punishment entirely to the Spaccio della Bcstia Trionjante will be
evident, in spite of Montucla, to any one 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.

** For the relation of these discoveries to Copernicus's work, see Delanibre,
Histoire de F Astronomic moderne, disconrs pr^liminaire, p. xiv ; also Laplace, Sys-
thne du Monde, vol. i, p. 326 ; and for more careful statements, Kepler's Opera
Omtiia, edit. Frisch, tome ii, p. 464. For Copernicus's prophecy, see Cantu, His-
toire Universelle, vol. xv, p. 473. (Cantu was an eminent Roman Catholic.)

sors, endeavouring to curry favour with the Church, at-
tacked him with sham science; earnest preachers attacked
him with perverted Scripture ; theologians, inquisitors, con-
gregations of cardinals, and at last two popes dealt'with
him, and, as was supposed, silenced his impious doctrine
forever.'^

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 immediatel}^ 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.

[_Maksutov]

A very curious example of this sham science employed by theologians is
in the argument, frequently used at that time, that, if the earth really moved, 2
stone falling from a height would fall back of the 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. Benzenburg has experimentally 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.

In vain did Galileo try to prove the existence of satel-
lites 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 dis-
covered 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 w^as
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." *

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 val-
leys ; this was denounced as a sacrilege logically resulting
from the astronomer's heresy.

Still another struggle was aroused when the hated tele-
scope revealed spots upon the sun, and their motion indicat-
ing the sun's rotation. Monsignor Elci, head of the Univer-
sity 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 sa/c^ 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 be-
came the general rule among the Catholic universities and
colleges of Europe. The Spanish universities were espe-
cially 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.

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 pro-
mulgate 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 en-
deavoured 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 de-
nounced him to the Grand-Duke. The Archbishop of Pisa
secretly sought to entrap Galileo and deliver him to the In-
quisition 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 astron-
omer of the world to visit Rome, was secretly moving the
Archbishop of Pisa to pick up evidence against the astron-
omer.

But by far the most terrible champion who now ap-
peared was Cardinal Bellarmin, one of the greatest theo-
logians 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.

[_Maksutov]

But the war grew still more bitter, and some weapons
used in it are worth examining. They are very easily ex-
amined, 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 How-
ard, 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. ^

These epithets can hardly be classed with civilized weap-
ons. They are burning arrows ; they set fire to masses of
popular prejudice, always obscuring the real question, some-
times 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 weap-
ons, though often effective in vexing good men and in scar-
ing 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.

* For various objectors and objections to Galileo by his contemporaries, see
Libri, Histoire des Sciences mathe'matiques eji Italic, vol. iv, pp. 233, 234 ; also Mar-
tin, Vie de Galilde. For Father Lecazre's argument, see Flammarion, Mondes irna-
ginaires et mo)ides r^els, 6e ed., pp. 315, 316. For Melanchthon's argument, see
his Initia, in Opera^ vol. iii, Halle, 1846.

Yet a baser warfare was waged by the Archbishop of
Pisa. This man, whose cathedral derives its most endurinof
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 Cheve-
rus. Sadly enough for the Church and humanity, he was
simply a zealot and intriguer: he perfected the plan for en-
trapping 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 migfht 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 bit-
terly to the Inquisition against Galileo, professes to Castelli
the greatest admiration of Galileo's genius and a sincere de-
sire to know more of his discoveries. This not succeeding:,
the archbishop at last throws off the mask and resorts to
open attack.

[_Maksutov]

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 pres-
ence of the Holy Spirit than in a caucus of New York politi-
cians at Tammany Hall.

But the opposing powers were too strong. In 161 5 Gali-
leo was summoned before the Inquisition at Rome, and the
mine which had been so long preparing was sprung. Sun-
dry 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 unani-
mous decision as follows: ''TJie 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 " tJie second proposition, that tJie earth
is not the centre but revolves about the sun, is absurd, false in
philosophy, and, from a theological poiiit of viezv 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 con-
fronted 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 Gali-
leo, " 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 im-
movable, 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 prom-
ises to obey."

[_DrW]

Hey Maks,

Just wanted to let you know how much your serialization of The Warfare of Science with Theology by A.D. White is appreciated.

I find that coming here periodically to read short passages about the contributions of science greats to life here on Earth can be of great personal solace and benefit in the face of the rightwing political turmoil and fundamentalist religious nonsense abroad in the land.

Please continue to provide your unique antidote to the mindless rote repetition of ancient myths and tired legends that pass as religious scripture.

Surely the FSM will bless you for your endeavors. And even if it fails to do so, please rest assured that you have blessed the lives of others with you posts.

[_Maksutov]

Thanks, DrW. I knew that you, among others, would appreciate my humble task. Sometimes I fear we are in the twilight of the Enlightenment and a new Dark Age is ahead. The persistence of myth, the love of the irrational and the primal appeal of tribalism has been underestimated.

[_Maksutov]

This was on the 26th of February, 1616. About a fort-
night 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 ivhich affirm the motion of the earths The great
work of Copernicus was interdicted until corrected in ac-
cordance 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 sanc-
tion. To teach or even read the works denounced or pas-
sages 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 Flor-
ence, 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. Car-
dinal Barberini, who had seemed liberal and friendly be-
came 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 en-
sued. 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 op-
ponents 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 unfit-
ness 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 Arch-
bishop 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 "lead-
ing to a denial of the Real Presence in the Eucharist."

[_huckelberry]

Thanks, DrW. I knew that you, among others, would appreciate my humble task. Sometimes I fear we are in the twilight of the Enlightenment and a new Dark Age is ahead. The persistence of myth, the love of the irrational and the primal appeal of tribalism has been underestimated.

Maksutov,I have enjoyed some of this historical review. Thankyou. I find myself puzzling about this dark prognosis however.

Tribalism? I think each of the major world religions are part of the human attempt to go beyond tribalism and find stable relationships with other people near and far. Each is related to expansion of political order outward from tribes or citystates. Each touches a hope for peace encompasing the world. Now clearly in practice they have run into new political conflicts and violence, some of which comes directly out of the limitations of the solution.

Myth may express and illuminate the things which mean most to people and give them power to face the difficulties of the day. I think it is well to have myths change to fit changing understandings of the facts of our lives.

Love of the irrational? jeepers Charlie Manson.

elsewhere you said,

LDS belief is not based on evidence. It's based on feelings and identity. Mormonism is relational, not conceptual. The concepts can shift and change but the relationships are what endure. This gives it self healing properties to survive the many errors and artifacts generated by the culture and its creators and operators. It's an exalted tribalism, a primate hierarchy extrapolated into infinity.

I think you say something important and insightful here. But it touches a part of tribalism which people do not exist without. We are not individuals in a big machine we are members of human groups which share all dimensions of our existence.

Myself I think we have no hope of ridding ourselves of some sort of myth and some sort of tribal. Only hope I can see is to rid those of irrationalism and the human tendency to slip into loving irrationalism.

[_Maksutov]

I would not say those dark things will win, Huckelberry. But they might. It's in our hands.

In the biggest picture I'm actually an optimist. The fact that anything exists, even for a finite time, is wondrous to me.