THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 2>97 



These can hardly be classed with civilized weapons. They are 

 burning arrows. They set fire to great masses of popular prejudices ; 

 smoke rises to obscure the real questions, fire bursts forth at times to 

 destroy the attacked party. They are poisoned weapons. They go 

 to the hearts of loving women, they alienate dear children. They 

 injure the man after life is ended, for they leave poisoned wounds in 

 the hearts of those who loved him best fears for his eternal happi- 

 ness dread of the divine displeasure. 



Of course, in these days, these weapons, though often effective in 

 disturbing good men, and in scaring good women, are somewhat 

 blunted. Indeed, they not unfrequently injure assailants more than 

 assailed ; so it was not in the days of Galileo. These weapons were 

 then in all their sharpness and venom. 



The first champion who appears against him is Bellarmin, one of 

 the greatest of theologians, and one of the poorest of scientists. He 

 was earnest, sincere, learned, but made the fearful mistake for the 

 world, of applying to science, direct, literal interpretation of Scripture.' 



The weapons which men of Bellarmin's stamp used were theologi- 

 cal. They held up before the world the dreadful consequences which 

 must result to Christian theology were the doctiine to prevail that 

 the heavenly bodies revolve about the sun, and not about the earth. 

 Their most tremendous theologic engine against Galileo was the idea 

 that his pretended discovery vitiated the whole Christian plan of sal- 

 vation. Father Le Gazree declared that it "cast suspicion on the 

 doctrine of the Incarnation." Others declared that it "upset the 

 whole basis of theology ; that if the earth is a planet, and one among 

 several planets, it cannot be that any such great things have been 

 done especially for it, as the Christian doctrine teaches. If there are 

 otlier planets, since God makes nothing in vain, they must be inhab- 

 ited ; but how can these inhabitants be descended from Adam ? How 

 can they trace back their origin to Noah's ark ? How can they have 

 been redeemed by the Saviour ? " '^ 



Nor was this argument confined to the theologians of the Roman 

 Church ; Melanchthon, Protestant as he was, had already used it in 

 his attacks upon the ideas of Copernicus and his school.* 



In addition to this prodigious engine of war, there was kept up a 

 terrific fire of smaller artillery in the shape of texts and scriptural 

 extracts. Some samples of these weapons may be interesting. 



When Galileo had discovered the four satellites of Jupiter,* the 



^ For Bellarmin's view see Quinet, "Jesuits," vol. ii., p. 189. For other objectors and 

 objections, see Libri, " Histoire des Sciences Matliematiques en Italic," vol. iv., pp. 233, 

 23-t ; also, "Private Life of Galileo," compiled from his correspondence and that of his 

 eldest daughter, Boston, 18*70 (an excellent little book). 



* See Trouessart, cited in Flammarion, "Mondes Imaginaires et Reels," sixieme Edi- 

 tion, pp. 315, 316. 



3 "Initia Doctrinee Physicae," pp. 220, 221. 



* See Delambre as to the discovery of the satellites of Jupiter being the turning-point 



