NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 463 



which our Holy Mother the Church practices, namely, the ringing of 

 bells when a thunderbolt impends : thence follows a twofold effect, phys- 

 ical and moral a physical, because the sound variously disturbs and 

 agitates the air, and by agitation disperses the hot exhalations and 

 dispels the thunder ; but the moral effect is the more certain, because 

 by the sound the faithful are stirred to pour forth their prayers, by 

 which they win from God the turning away of the thunderbolt." * 

 Here we see in this branch of thought, as in so many others, at the 

 close of the seventeenth century, the dawn of rationalism. Father 

 De Angelis now keeps demoniacal influence in the background. Lit- 

 tle, indeed, is said of the efficiency of bells in putting to flight the 

 legions of Satan : the wise professor is evidently preparing for that 

 inevitable compromise which we see in the history of every science 

 when it is clear that it can no longer be suppressed by ecclesiastical fill- 

 minations. 



But, while this apparently harmless doctrine regarding modes of 

 dealing with the powers of the air was developed, there were evolved 

 another theory and a series of practices sanctioned by the Church, 

 which must forever be considered as among the fearful calamities in 

 human history. Indeed, few errors have ever cost so much shedding 

 of innocent blood over such wide territory and during so many gen- 

 erations. Out of the old doctrine pagan and Christian of evil 

 agency in atmospheric phenomena, was evolved the belief that cer- 

 tain men, women, and children had secured infernal aid to produce 

 whirlwinds, frosts, floods, and the like. 



As early as the ninth century one great churchman, Agobard, 

 Archbishop of Lyons, struck a heavy blow at this superstition. His 

 work, "Against the Absurd Opinion of the Vulgar touching Hail and 

 Thunder," shows him to have been one of the most devoted apostles 

 of right reason whom human history has known. By argument and 

 ridicule, and at times by a lofty eloquence, he attempted to breast 

 this tide. One passage is of historical significance. He declares : 

 " The wretched world lies now under the tyranny of foolishness ; 

 things are believed by Christians of such absurdity as no one ever 

 could aforetime induce the heathen to believe." f 



All in vain; the tide of superstition continued to roll on ; great 

 theologians developed it and ecclesiastics favored it ; until as we near 

 the end of the mediaeval period the infallible voice of Rome is heard 

 accepting it, and clinching this belief into the mind of Christianity. 

 For, in 1437, Pope Eugene IV, by virtue of the teaching power con- 

 ferred on him by the Almighty, and under the divine guarantee 



* See De Angelis, " Lectiones Meteorol.," "75. 



f For a very interesting statement of Agobard's position and work, with citations from 

 his " Liber contra insulsam vulgi opinionem de grandine et tonitruis," see Poole, " Illus- 

 trations of the History of Mediaeval Thought," 40, et seq. The works of Agobard may 

 be found in vol. civ of Migne's " Patrol. Lat." 



