THE RENAISSANCE OF SCIENCE. 9 



intellects; and its religious avithority was assigned to it by making all truth a 

 part of religion. And as Religion claimed assent within her own jurisdiction 

 under the most solemn and imperative sanctions, Philosophy shared in her 

 imperial power, and dissent from their doctrines was no longer blameless or 

 allowable. Error became wicked, dissent became heresy; to reject received 

 human doctrines was nearly the same as to doubt Divine declarations. 



Aristotle became the sole authority in science^ just as the church was 

 the sole authority in religion. 



While a general statement like the foregoing is, in the main, true, 

 it requires countless modifications if it is to be taken as an explanation 

 of the course of intellectual progress in the middle ages. Their con- 

 ditions were almost as complex as those that surround our own century. 

 They were modified by unnumbered circumstances of place, time and 

 personality. No one formula can possibly express the spirit of the 

 middle ages, even in respect of a single branch of science. It is, for ex- 

 ample, entirely true that the authority of Aristotle was overwhelming. 

 What was not found in his works was, necessarily, false. This is a 

 general truth, and the career of Galileo is a commentary upon it. On 

 the other hand, it must not be supposed that Aristotle was always and 

 everywhere unquestioned. 



It was not until two great doctors of the church — Albertus Magnus 

 and St. Thomas Aquinas — had adopted, explained and consecrated 

 Aristotle 's doctrines in the thirteenth century that his authority became 

 overpowering and universal. Eoger Bacon, the great contemporary 

 of St. Thomas and Albert, was also, as Voltaire has said, **un homme 

 admirable pour son siecle. Quel siecle? me direz-vous. C'etait celui 

 du gouvernement feodal et des scholastiques. Figurez vous les 

 Samoides et les Ostiasques qui aurient lu Aristote et Avicenne — voila 

 ce que nous etions. ' ' 



In the year 1000, the world did not come to an end, as had been 

 prophesied and expected : ' Whereupon men took renewed possession 

 of the Earth and of themselves.' This gave leisure to the spirit; 

 leisure and comfort for the body had already, in some measure, been 

 conquered. Men again began to be curious regarding humanity, life, 

 nature. Science for the first time became possible. It is with the 

 greatest difficulty that the attitude of the middle ages towards scientific 

 matters can be comprehended. The time is full of the sharpest con- 

 trasts. Eoger Bacon illustrates its highest lights. Its deepest shadows 

 are found in the doings of the inquisitors of Spain. Its everyday 

 aspect is, perhaps, best to be conceived from poems and legends that 

 pleased the people. Bestiaries, or story-books of animals, were ex- 

 tremely popular. 



They declared, among other things, that: 



The basilisk kills with a glance of his eye; "the bite of the cockatrice is fatal 

 to the weasel if the weasel eat not rue before"; the salamander lives in fire; 



