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."[1]
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 development of theological thought far more important.
This development was twofold: on the 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, hail-storms, hurricanes, and the like.
At the very beginning 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. This gave the Roman troops the advantage, and enabled 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, Saint Gregory of Nyssa, and Saint Jerome were among those who insisted upon this meteorological miracle—the first two, indeed, in the fervor of their arguments for its reality, allowing themselves to be carried considerably beyond exact historical truth.[2]
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 became a mere truism, entering into all me-
- ↑ See Reisch, "Margarita philosophica," ix, 18, and Eck, "Arist. Meteor." (as above), ii, nota 2.
- ↑ 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 "Fast. Rom.," p. 24.
