34 EVOLUTION AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 



with all sane scientists and mathematicians. 

 Above all, Catholic scientists and investigators are 

 carefully warned against putting forth as facts any 

 statements of whose certainty sufficient proofs are 

 wanting. Hence no better foundation for a sci- 

 entific training can be conceived than that sup- 

 plied by the Church. 



Perhaps the greatest of all the names in the 

 science of biology according to many of the lead- 

 ing scientists of the twentieth century was the 

 Augustinian monk Johann Gregor Mendel. Not 

 a few look upon his contributions to modern 

 thought as the most important biological dis- 

 coveries of the entire previous century. Castle 

 rightly describes them as "the most original and 

 instructive series of studies in heredity ever exe- 

 cuted." n The edition of the "Enclopedia Brit- 

 tannica" to which reference has been made, 

 recognized this fact by assigning to him more 

 space than was given to any other of the seventy- 

 five most famous biologists of all time. Yet his 

 tireless and amazing investigations into the 

 mysteries of reproduction and heredity; where 

 these could best be studied, in the life of plants, 

 doubtless but strengthened and intensified his 

 Catholic faith. He died as abbot. 



Confining ourselves to a single branch of 

 science, the one most intimately associated in the 



"Menge, op. cit., p. 52. See in particular: Padberg and Muck- 

 ermann, "Mendel and Mendelismus." 



