APOLOGY FOR THE BELFAST ADDRESS. 505 
sun. In the exercise of her right to determine what true 
science is, the Church, in the pontificate of Paul V., 
stepped in, and by the mouth of the holy Congregation of 
the Index, delivered, on March 5, 1616, the following 
decree: 
And whereas it hath also come to the knowledge of the 
said holy congregation that the false Pythagorean doctrine 
of the mobility of the earth and the immobility of the sun, 
entirely opposed to Holy writ, which is taught by Nicolas 
Copernicus, is now published abroad and received by many. 
In order that this opinion may not further spread, to the 
tlitmage of Catholic truth, it is ordered that this and all 
other books teaching the like doctrine be suspended, and by 
t'hift decree they are all respectively suspended, forbidden, 
and condemned. 
But why go back to 1456 and 1616? Far be it from me 
to charge bygone sins upon Monsignor Capel, were it not 
for the practices he upholds to-day. The most applauded 
dogmatist and champion of the Jesuits is, I am informed, 
Perrone. No less than thirty editions of a work of his have 
been scattered abroad for the healing of the nations. His 
notions of physical astronomy are virtually those of 1456. 
He teaches, boldly that " God does not rule by universal 
law . . . that when God orders a given planet to stand 
still He does not detract from any law passed by Himself, 
but orders that planet to move round the sun for such and 
such a time, then to stand still, and then again to move, 
as His pleasure may be." Jesuitism proscribed Froh- 
schamrner for questioning its favorite dogma,!' that every 
human soul was created by a direct supernatural act of 
God, and for asserting that man, body and soul, came from 
his parents. This is the system that now strives for 
universal power; it is from it, as Monsignor Capel 
graciously informs us, that we are to learn what is allow- 
able in science, and what is not! 
In the face of such facts, which might be multiplied at 
will, it requires extraordinary bravery of mind, or a 
reliance upon public ignorance almost as extraordinary, to 
make the claims made by Monsiguor Capel for his Church. 
Before me is a very remarkable letter addressed in 1875 
by the bishop of Montpellier to the deans and professors 
of faculties of Montpellier, in which the writer very 
clearly lays down the claims of his Church. He had been 
