APOLOGY FOR THE BELFAST ADDRESS. 505 



sun. In the exercise of her riglit 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 liatli 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 

 damage of Catholic truth, it is ordered that this and all 

 other books teaching the like doctrine be suspended, and by 

 this 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- 

 schammer 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 Mousignor 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 Monsignor 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 



