36 EVOLUTION AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 



Catholics, on the other hand, freely acknowl- 

 edge that here a palpable mistake was made by 

 the ecclesiastical authorities in matters of science. 

 But the one thing remarkable about the case, as 

 Cardinal Newman long ago pointed out, is that it 

 affords the professional enemies of the Church the 

 one instance that can be cited by them out of cen- 

 turies of incessant ecclesiastical relations with the 

 various sciences. It needs but a glance at such 

 works as those of Dr. Walsh to appreciate the 

 incalculable assistance the Church has afforded to 

 science." 



Yet Huxley was not wrong in his conclusion. 

 For although the fact was rightly stated by 

 Galileo, his proofs were utterly inadequate. Many 

 years indeed elapsed after his death before the 

 first scientific evidence was offered for his views. 

 The prison horrors, very imaginatively interwovwi 

 with this story to give it the proper human appeal, 

 were, as we well know, the purest inventions. 

 "The Papal power," wrote Professor Augustus 

 de Morgan, a writer never suspected of Catholic 

 proclivities, "must upon the whole have been 

 moderately used in matters of philosophy, if we 

 may judge by the great stress laid on this one case 

 of Galileo. It is the standing proof that an 

 authority which has lasted a thousand years was 



"See in particular: Dr. James J. Walsli, "The Popes and 

 Science." 



