CATHOLICS AND EVOLUTION 97 



f erred to, Father Wasmann says : "Even to St. 

 Augustine it seemed a more exalted conception, 

 and one more in keeping with the omnipotence 

 and wisdom of an infinite Creator, to believe that 

 God created matter by one act of creation, and 

 then allowed the whole universe to develop auto- 

 matically by means of the laws which He imposed 

 upon the nature of matter. 



"God does not interfere directly with the nat- 

 ural order when He can work by natural causes : 

 this is a fundamental principle in the Christian 

 account of nature, and was enunciated by the 

 great theologian, Suarez, 3 whilst St. Thomas 

 Aquinas plainly suggested it long before, when he 

 regarded it as a testimony of the greatness of 

 God's power, that His providence accomplishes 

 its aims in nature not directly but by means of 

 created causes." 4 



To show that this idea was by no means 

 strange to St. Augustine, St. Thomas, St. Bona- 

 venture and others, reference is made by the au- 

 thor to Father Knabenbauer's specific treatment 

 of the relation of Faith to evolution. 5 



It is therefore an old theory within the Church 

 that the act of Creation took place at once, and 

 that what followed was but an evolution accord- 



*"De Opere Sex Dierum," i. 2, c. 10, n. 12. 



* "Modern Biology," p. 274. 



""Glaube und Deszendenztheorie." Contributed to the 

 Stimmen aus Maria-Laach, XIII, 1877, pp. 75 ff Cf. T. Pesch, 

 "Philosophia naturalis," II, pp. 241 ff, and "Die grossen Welt- 

 rdzel, II, pp. 349. 



