148 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



method on the other. But this position was attacked and car- 

 ried hy a very simple statement. If the divine guidance of the 

 Church is such that it can he dragged into a professorial squabble, 

 and made the tool of a faction in bringing about a most disas- 

 trous condemnation of a proved truth, how did the Church at that 

 time differ from any human organization sunk into decrepitude, 

 managed nominally by simpletons, but really by schemers ? If 

 that argument be true, the condition of the Church was worse 

 than its enemies have declared it : amid the jeers of an unfeeling 

 world the apologists sought new shelter. 



The next point at which a stand was made was the assertion 

 that the condemnation of Galileo was "provisory"; but this 

 proved a more treacherous shelter than the other. When doctrines 

 have been solemnly declared, as those of Galileo were solemnly 

 declared by the highest authority in the Church, " contrary to the 

 sacred Scriptures/' " opposed to the true faith," and " false and 

 absurd in theology and philosophy ; " to say that such declara- 

 tions are " provisory," is to say that the truth held by the Church 

 is not immutable; from this, then, the apologists retreated.* 



Still another contention was made in some respects more 

 curious than any other ; it was, mainly, that Galileo " was no 

 more a victim of Catholics than of Protestants ; for they more 

 than the Catholic theologians impelled the Pope to the action 

 taken." \ 



But if Protestantism could force the papal hand in a matter of 

 this magnitude involving vast questions of belief and far-reach- 

 ing questions of policy what becomes of " inerrancy," of special 

 protection and guidance of the papal authority in matters of faith ? 



While this retreat from position to position was going on, 

 there was a constant discharge of small-arms, in the shape of 

 innuendoes, hints, and sophistries : every effort was made to 

 blacken Galileo's private character ; the irregularities of his early 

 life were dragged forth, and stress even was laid upon breaches 

 of etiquette ; but this succeeded so poorly that even as far back 

 as 1850 it was thought necessary to cover this retreat by some 

 more careful strategy. 



This strategy is instructive. The original documents of the 

 Galileo trial had been brought during the Napoleonic conquests 

 to Paris ; but in 1846 they were returned to Rome by the French 

 Government, on the express pledge by the papal authorities that 



* This argument also seems to have been foisted upon the world by the wily Monsignor 

 Harini. 



f See the Rev. A. M. Kirsch on Professor Huxley and Evolution, in The American 

 Catholic Quarterly, October, 1877. The article is, as a whole, remarkably fair-minded, and 

 in the main just, as to the Protestant attitude, and as to the causes underlying the whole 

 action against Galileo. 



