NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 297 



of Eichhorn's work, was met generally with, contempt and fre- 

 quently 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 in- 

 terpretation 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 con- 

 tented himself with telling the priest that, though his contention 

 was perhaps true, he "must avoid everything likely to make 

 trouble, and remain in the old paths." 



But at the elector's death, soon afterward, the theologians re- 

 newed 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 receiving 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 at- 

 tached to it 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 for- 

 bidden, and all copies of it in that part of Germany were confis- 

 cated. 



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 do- 

 ing 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 vol- 



