XII. ] THEOLOGY AND EVOLUTION. 281 



movement of Luther, Suarez may be taken as a writer widely 

 venerated as an authority, and one whose orthodoxy has 

 never been questioned. 



It must be borne in mind that, for a considerable time 

 after even the last of these writers, no one had disputed the 

 generally-received view as to the small age of the world or 

 at least of the kinds of animals and plants inhabiting it. It 

 becomes therefore much more striking if views formed under 

 such a condition of opinion are found to harmonize with 

 modern ideas regarding " Creation " and organic life. 



Now, St. Augustine insists in a very remarkable manner 

 on the merely derivative sense in which God's creation of or- 

 ganic forms is to be understood ; that is, that God created 

 them by conferring on the material world the power to evolve 

 them under suitable conditions. He says in his book on 

 Genesis : 24 " Terrestria animalia, tanquam ex ultimo ele- 

 mento mundi ultima ; nihilominus potentialiter, quorum nu- 

 meros tempus postea visibiliter explicaret." 



Again he says : 



" Sicut autem in ipso grano invisibiliter erant omnia 

 simul, quae per tempora in arborem surgerent ; ita ipse mun- 

 dus cogitandus est, cum Deus simul omnia creavit, habuisse 

 simul omnia quas in illo et cum illo facta sunt quando factus 

 est dies ; non solum ccelum cum sole et luna et sideribus 

 . . . . ; sed etiam ilia quae aqua et terra produxit potentialiter 

 atque causaliter, priusquam per temporum moras its exori- 

 rentur, quomodo nobrs jam nota sunt in eis operibus, quae 

 Deus usque nunc operatur." " 



" Omnium quippe rerum quse corporaliter visibiliterque 

 nascuntur, occulta quaedam semina in istis corporeis mundi 

 hujus elementis latent." 26 



24 " De Genesi ad Litt.," lib. v., cap. v., No. 14 in Ben. Edition, vol 

 iii., p. 186. 



25 Lib. cit., cap. xxii., No. 44. 



26 Lib. cit., " De Trinitate," lib. iii., cap. viii., No. 14. 



