5 88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



But, 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 am- 

 ple amends in a second edition. 



Early in the nineteenth century, Herbst, Catholic professor at 

 Tubingen, had endeavored in a similar Introduction to briDg more 

 modern research to bear on the older view ; but the Church 

 authorities saw that all passages really giving any new light were 

 skillfully 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 schol- 

 ars have very generally been drawn into the position of " apol- 

 ogists," and, when this has been found impossible, 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 crush- 

 ing 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, 



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 which 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. 



