104 EVOLUTION AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 



species originated according to the theory of evo- 

 lution." " 



It has been the purpose of this chapter to cite 

 a variety of Catholic authorities that no doubt 

 may be left as to the true nature of the liberty 

 granted upon this subject within the Church. No 

 better summary can therefore be given of the 

 entire question than that offered by Father F. P. 

 Siegfried in the article just referred to. 



"The two general biological problems con- 

 nected with the Biblical cosmogony," he says, 

 "are the origin of life and the succession of or- 

 ganisms. Concerning both these problems all that 

 the Catholic Faith teaches is that the beginnings 

 of plant and animal life are due in some way 

 to the productive power of God. Whether with 

 St. Augustine and St. Thomas, one hold that only 

 the primordial elements, endowed with disposi- 

 tions and powers (rationes seminales) for de- 

 velopment, were created in the strict sense of the 

 term, and the rest of nature plant and animal 

 life was gradually evolved according to a fixed 

 order of natural operation under the supreme 

 guidance of the Divine Administration; 15 or 

 whether, with other Fathers and Doctors of the 

 School, one hold that life and the classes of living 

 beings orders, families, genera, species were 

 each and all, or only some few, strictly and imme- 



** Article, "Creation"; section "Creation and Evolution." 

 Harper "Metaphysics of the School," II, p. 746. 



