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 upon the true scientific method in geology was waged more fiercely in Protestant countries than in Catholic. The older Church had learned by her earlier wretched 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.[1]
We have already noted that there are generally three periods or phases in a theological attack upon any science.[2] 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, Eng-
- ↑ 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 Académie des Sciences," second edition, p. 152. For very frank confessions of the reasons why the Roman 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 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.
- ↑ See "The Warfare of Science," original edition, for a discussion of this point.
